Petrobras Halts Drilling Rigs in Bahia and Sergipe; 550 Oil Workers Lose Jobs

The shutdown of five oil rigs operating at Petrobras’ Operational Unit (UO) in Bahia will initially result in the dismissal of 350 oil workers. New oil workers infected with the coronavirus in the Campos Basin, this time at P-26 in Macaé.

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In addition to the oil fields in Bahia, Petrobras also terminated the operations of four Braserv rigs in Sergipe, resulting in the dismissal of 200 workers.

According to the Bahia Oil Workers’ Union (Sindipetro-BA), Petrobras refused to negotiate with the entity, which made several attempts to open dialogue to present proposals that could mitigate the impacts caused by the shutdown of these rigs, especially regarding the layoffs.

According to Radiovaldo Costa, communication director of Sindipetro, Petrobras’ management acts irresponsibly and, instead of implementing public policies to alleviate the health emergency caused by the new coronavirus, which is also contributing to the worsening of the economic crisis, dismisses more workers.

Last Friday (24), the company’s four Braserv rigs (SPTS 143, 145, 153, and 154) and one from Perbras (SPT 19) began to be shut down in Bahia.

With this, officially, Petrobras’ management initiates the shutdown of activities at UO-BA. According to the state-owned company, the shutdown of five of the 20 rigs in operation in Bahia is an initial measure that will be deepened, primarily affecting the land fields of Água Grande, Dom João, Candeias, and Rio Pojuca.

In the contract, Petrobras has the right to shut down the oil rigs at any time as long as it notifies the company 30 days in advance, which did not happen, as the notice was not even 24 hours, stated the entity.