The Lubnor privatization process is not going as planned by Petrobras and, after the FUP mobilized against the sale of the refinery, the City of Fortaleza filed a lawsuit against the process claiming the concession of a slice of the municipality's area

The City of Fortaleza opened a lawsuit against Petrobras to stop the sale of Lubrificantes e Derivados do Nordeste (Lubnor) and its port structures, located in Ceará. And, after the action was announced, the Single Federation of Petroleum Workers (FUP), which was already mobilizing against privatization of the refinery, commented on the process in a note released last Thursday (02/06).

Fortaleza City Hall files lawsuit against Petrobras to stop the sale of Lubnor, alleging irregularities in the refinery concession process

Petrobras continues with its process of granting refineries to the private sector and, after the announcement of the sale of Lubnor, several bodies in the oil sector mobilized against the process. Now, it was the turn of the Fortaleza City Hall to join the mobilizations and the city administration opened a lawsuit against the state-owned company to block the privatization of the refinery, which is located in the state of Ceará. 

The lawsuit was opened because the Fortaleza City Hall claims that a portion of 30% of the area where Lubnor is located belongs to the municipality, but Petrobras would not have informed the negotiation and had not even discussed the sale process with the city authority, which caused an irregularity in the privatization process.

In this way, the administration of the capital also claims that Petrobrás offered about R$ 9 million for the part of the land, but the area would be worth four times more, valued at about R$ 40 million, causing damage to the entire state of Ceará with for sale. 

In addition to the city hall, the FUP was already mobilizing against the sale of the Lubnor refinery to private initiative, claiming that Petrobras would be selling the structure for much less than it is really worth and, therefore, would cause a series of negative impacts to the economy of Ceará. Thus, FUP also has an open lawsuit, in which it questions the sale of the refinery for US$ 34 million to the company Grepar Participações Ltda, claiming that the amount was 55% below the estimate of the total market value of the refinery.

FUP releases a note commenting on the lawsuit filed by the City of Fortaleza against the sale of the Lubnor refinery

Since the beginning of the privatization process of Lubnor by Petrobras was announced, the FUP began its mobilization against the company and is currently trying to block the sale of the refinery to the company Grepar Participações Ltda.

However, the FUP, as well as the city of Fortaleza, has not yet obtained results in the demonstrations against the privatization of Lubnor, but is still trying to reach an agreement with Petrobras for the cancellation of the process.

Despite this, the FUP commented on the lawsuit filed by the City of Fortaleza, supporting the administration and once again mobilizing against Petrobras. The agency said, in a note: “The fact that they did not even advise the municipality of Fortaleza, which owns 30% of the land, about the transaction, can be seen both as incompetence of the current management of the state-owned company, or as bad faith on the part of the Government, more once. In addition to the problem identified by the City of Fortaleza in the case of Lubnor, privatization leads to the construction of private monopolies in the country's refining sector, such as what happened with Rlam, sold to the Arab fund Mubadala”.

Now, the FUP and the City of Fortaleza await the necessary measures from the Justice so that Petrobras does not continue the privatization process of Lubnor, which has a series of irregularities that may harm the economy of the state of Ceará in the future.