Petrobras CEO defends current oil price policy

(Bloomberg) — Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA will continue with its current price policy, making adjustments only when technical guidelines suggest the need for them.

“We don’t want uncertainty created by geopolitical factors entering consumer’s homes,” CEO Jean Paul Prates said in a post published Saturday on his account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based producer is known, announced a new price policy in May combining domestic and foreign factors, abandoning a previous mandate to follow the cost of imported fuel supplies. Prates’ recent comments come after a plea by Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira to cut diesel prices, which have the most impact on Brazil’s inflation rate.  

“I can’t repeat it enough: Petrobras doesn’t create its market prices, but has a commercial policy which follows technical, logistical and operational parameters,” Prates wrote in his post. The company’s current commercial policy focuses on sheltering domestic prices from international volatility, he added.