The chief executive of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras, who has stayed in his post despite last month being fired by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, resigned on Monday after a new fuel price hike that enraged Bolsonaro.
Jose Mauro Coelho is the third Petrobras chief executive to leave since February last year in a standoff between the company and Bolsonaro over fuel prices.
Petrobras announced Coelho’s resignation on Monday.
Photo: Reuters
The company said Fernando Borges — its head of exploration and production — would temporarily take over until government pick Caio Paes de Andrade, a Brazilian Ministry of the Economy official, assumes the top job.
Coelho was appointed for a one-year term in April after Bolsonaro fired his predecessor, Joaquim Silva e Luna, in March after slightly more than a year in the post.
The far-right president said then that the price of fuel — set by Petrobras, but tied to international market movement — was “unaffordable” and amounted to a “crime” against Brazilians.
Silva e Luna, in turn, had replaced Roberto Castello Branco, fired by Bolsonaro in February last year.
Last month, Bolsonaro dismissed Coelho after just 40 days on the job. He had been waiting to be formally removed at the company’s next shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for next month.
Bolsonaro, seeking re-election in October, is widely blamed by voters for double-digit inflation, polls show, on the back of skyrocketing global and local fuel prices.
He faces an uphill battle against leftist former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), remembered for presiding over a booming economy.
Brazil has seen fuel prices surge more than 33 percent in a year, official figures showed.
Inflation stands at 11.73 percent, far above the central bank’s target of 3.5 percent.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to a sharp rise in crude prices in the past few weeks, adding to the pressure.
On Friday, Petrobras announced a 5.18 percent hike in gasoline prices and more than 14 percent for diesel, blaming “a challenging scenario in Brazil and the world.”
Bolsonaro reacted angrily, saying Petrobras “could sink Brazil in chaos.”
The company reported a net profit of 44.6 billion reais (US$8,6 billion) in the first quarter of this year — about 38 times the result of a year earlier.
Brazillian Chamber of Deputies President Arthur Lira — a Bolsonaro ally — has proposed raising taxes on Petrobras profits — which he has described as “absurd.”
The Brazilian National Congress is also mulling a Bolsonaro proposal to lower the tax on fuel.
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