Protect some jobs in unattractive activities or develop the country? Indaga, researcher from INOG – National Institute of Oil and Gas/CNPq, Cleveland M. Jones

As a respectable media, we at Click Petróleo e Gás defend democracy and give space to different points of view. Based on this premise, we decided to publish the opinion of the researcher from INOG – National Institute of Oil and Gas/CNPq, Cleveland M. Jones, in response to the article published by us last Wednesday (21/07) Millionaire offer makes Petrobras, the largest oil company in Brazil, give up the Papa-Terra oil field and further reduce its presence in the Campos Basin.

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Jobs: we need to understand what's at stake

According to the opinion of Dr. Cleveland M. Jones, “whenever we hear criticism of Petrobras divestments, because they will result in job losses, we need to understand what is at stake. Either we want Petrobras to continue as a job hanger, both for political appointees and employees in activities with relatively little commercial attractiveness, or we want it to continue on the path of one of the largest companies in the sector, globally, generating more and more production, profits, wealth and benefits, as well as pride, for Brazil and Brazilians”, says the executive.

If the criterion for evaluating its activities is only the generation of jobs, it would be enough for the ANP or some other government body to oblige the hiring of employees to be at the side of each employee, even if to do nothing. This was how many US railroads were operated until the rationalization brought by the search for efficiency and the breaking of senseless labor rules that harmed the competitiveness of the economy.

The quest for profit is nothing more than the quest for efficiency. It is up to the government to supervise and ensure compliance with the laws, not to require the continuity of the operation of assets that are not attractive to the company. If the government does not have the competence to manage the country's strategic interests, and it only manages to do so through Petrobras, then it should seek to be more effective in its strategic actions. It is exclusively up to the government, not the private sector, to stimulate the preservation of jobs through investments with economic returns below what the private initiative requires.

Let Petrobras work

Let Petrobras work! Its earnings, shared through the government take, will be much greater than the supposedly illusory and fleeting earnings of maintaining some jobs in activities that are not of interest to the company. With undue interference in Petrobras' business, we will only manage to scare away the investments that Brazil so badly needs to produce its already known immense oil wealth, but which can hardly be monetized if Brazil does not drastically increase its production, in the shortest possible time.

Or do we have the courage to assume an explicit interventionism, demanding that the company focus on mature fields, which demand intensive use of human resources, and that it leave aside the pre-salt and other more productive plays, but which employ proportionally fewer employees.

Then, we would also need courage to fully nationalize Petrobras, something not unthinkable, but which can be done with transparency and within market rules. Unfortunately, Brazil does not have the clout to indemnify minority shareholders, nor would it last long until its O&G sector, completely in the hands of inept and disengaged managers, breaks down into yet another mess.

Brazil does not deserve to be slowed down in its growth and development, by measures that interfere with the management of a company like Petrobras, with recognized competence in its field, and with professional and more transparent management, especially now, when it begins to reap the results of a new era, without the shackles imposed by corruption and political intervention suffered in the past.

by – Cleveland M. Jones

About Cleveland M. Jones

Prof. Cleveland M. Jones, DSc
Technical Director and Partner – Fronteira Energia Ltda. (Border Brazil)
Associate Consultant – CEGeo
Researcher at INOG – National Institute of Oil and Gas/CNPq
Member, Geosciences Advisory Board – NXT Energy Solutions
President, Brazilian Environmentalist Academy of Letters – ABAL
Member, Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science
Chico Mendes Award, Petrópolis City Council, 2019

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/clevelandmjones
• Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/2858652663353677