Page 4 - LatAmOil Week 01 2023

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

Brazil’s president (R) and his new energy minister (C) on January 1 (Photo: Twitter/@asilveiramg)
Lula’s new line-up

Brazil’s leftist president names new energy minister and Petrobras CEO

ON January 1, Brazil’s government changed Additionally, he has faulted the former presi-
hands, with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva assuming dent for failing to promote the development of
WHAT: the presidency and replacing Jair Bolsonaro. Petrobras’ capabilities with respect to renewable
Lula has named two sen- Lula’s ascendancy is expected to have conse- energy, stressing the urgency of climate-related
ators to serve as energy quences for Brazil’s oil and gas sector for mul- issues.
minister and head of the tiple reasons. On the one hand, the president Now that Lula has assumed the presidency,
national oil company. – who is now embarking upon his third term, Brazilians will be able to see how these policy
after being cleared from a previous conviction stances play out in practice as well as on the cam-
WHY: on corruption that kept him out of the polit- paign trail.
The election of a new ical arena for several years – is known to lean
government could lead to the left politically. As such, he has not much New energy minister
to some notable policy favoured his rightist predecessor’s policies. The new government has already filled two key
changes. More specifically, Lula has criticised Bolson- posts. It has named Alexandre Silveira as the
WHAT NEXT: aro for encouraging the national oil company new head of the Ministry of Mines and Energy
(MME) and has nominated Jean Paul Prates to
(NOC) Petrobras to operate in a more corpo-
There are not likely to rate fashion and focus on its most profitable serve as CEO of Petrobras.
be any huge immediate
shifts due to budget con- upstream assets – that is, on its large offshore Silveira, whose nomination was announced
straints and bureaucratic fields in the pre-salt sections of the Santos and on December 29, represents the state of Minas
procedures. Campos basins. Instead, he has said he would Gerais in the Senate, the upper house of Brazil’s
have preferred to see Petrobras hang on to its National Congress. He is a member of the Social
downstream refining assets and work more Democratic Party (PSD), a centre-right faction
closely with the government in order to guaran- allied with Lula’s broadly leftist Workers’ Party
tee domestic fuel supplies and protect consum- (PT), and he will be replacing Adolfo Sachsida
ers from fluctuations in global crude oil prices. at MME.

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