Petrobras must close, by September of this year, a Term of Adjustment of Conduct (TAC) to repair the municipality of Itaboraí for the damage caused by the stoppage of the works of the Petrochemical Complex of Rio de Janeiro (Comperj) in 2015.

The agreement, which should be worth approximately BRL 7,5 billion, was announced at a public hearing held this Monday, June 24, by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) installed in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj) to investigate the fiscal crisis in Rio de Janeiro.

The general manager of implementation and undertakings at Petrobras, Alessandro Costa Mello, stated that the company's legal department should finish analyzing the TAC in the coming months. “We are in the process of seeking final understandings on the agreement. The draft is being processed internally and we expect to sign the TAC between July and August of this year”, he revealed.

The mayor of Itaboraí, Dr. Sadinoel, stated that the city suffered a great impact due to the stoppage of Comperj's investments. “We had the highest unemployment rate in Brazil in Itaboraí. There were 30 thousand jobs thrown in the trash between 2014 and 2015”, he complained.

For the president of the CPI, deputy Luiz Paulo (PSDB), the signing of the agreement is the result of the assessment of all the losses caused by the Comperj crisis. “The TAC is the result of the assessment of all the economic, environmental and social losses that the stoppage of Comperj's works generated in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The TAC will translate this loss into numbers and investments”, he analyzed.

Petrobras also announced the completion by 2021 of a Natural Gas Production Unit (UPGN) with the capacity to produce 21 million m³ of fuel per day and generate 8 jobs directly linked to Comperj.

The UPGN is associated with the Rota 3 project, designed to transport gas production from the pre-salt layer of the Santos Basin. According to Alessandro Costa Mello, the venture will require investments of R$ 2 billion.

There are more than 20 contracts to put the UPGN into operation, half of which have already been signed, the other half will also be signed by the beginning of next year and 70% of the jobs created will be in the city of Itaboraí”, he declared.

Another investment discussed during the meeting was the possibility of a refining unit also being part of Comperj's undertakings. Costa Mello informed that the feasibility studies, carried out jointly with the Chinese company CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation), should be ready in the second half of this year. “The study is in progress with completion scheduled for September 2019,” he said.

Among the plans evaluated for Comperj, the most distant, according to the general manager of Petrobras, is the project for the development of the thermoelectric plant, announced by the state-owned company in April this year. The studies are still in the preliminary phase and their realization does not yet have a concrete forecast.

“Petrobras clarifies that the studies for the realization of a thermoelectric plant are still preliminary and there is no decision on the subject. There will be gas available, so there is the possibility of having a thermoelectric plant at Comperj, but the studies are embryonic”, analyzed Costa Mello.

According to Luiz Paulo, the ideal would be to have both the refinery and the thermoelectric plant integrated into Comperj“. Comperj is something absolutely discredited because it generated great expectations, but led to a loss of BRL 14 billion. The perspective for the entry into operation of the UPGN is for 2021 and we still do not know the final destination. That's why we plan to pay a visit to the petrochemical complex facilities in the last week of July”, he commented.

Railway operated by Vale, will be connected to the port of Açu, and will run through Comperj