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Petrobras, The Largest Brazilian State-Owned Company And One Of The Largest Oil Companies In The World, Has A New President. Now, The One In Charge Is Civil Engineer Magda Maria Regina Chambriard, A Proponent Of Petrobras’ Role In The Exploration And Production Of Oil And Gas And The Company’s Role As A Driver Of Development In The Country.
Regina takes over Petrobras with the goal of accelerating investments in areas where the company has recently divested assets. Examples include refining and fertilizers.
In an interview with the Blog do Desenvolvimento, an economic news agency from Brazil’s North and Northeast, the executive revealed her main opinions. In this article from Click Petróleo e Gás, you can check out the most relevant points she made.
A Familiar Face To Lula And Petrobras
Regina Chambriard was part of the team responsible for formulating the government project of then-candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), meaning she is well-versed in the sector’s most sensitive and important topics for the current administration.
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The U.S. ambassador openly threatened the interim president of Peru after he suggested pausing the purchase of 24 American fighter jets due to the debt that the deal would bring to the country.
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Millions of Brazilians pay Income Tax without knowing that they can divert up to 6% of the amount to social and cultural projects instead of letting the government decide alone what to do with the money.
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Chinese have taken over the factory that Jaguar Land Rover built for over R$ 1 billion in Rio de Janeiro and will transform the plant that produced luxury cars into a machine for 100,000 vehicles per year.
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More than 3,900 Brazilian municipalities are unable to pay their own bills, and yet two city halls located just 700 meters apart continue to operate separately, each with a full structure.
In addition to having participated in Lula’s government project, Regina Chambriard has also worked at Petrobras itself. This was from 1980 to 2002. She left the company because she was transferred to the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP). There, she was director and held the position of general director.
Regina Chambriard’s Ideas
According to her, oil plays a role in the energy matrix, given that 84% of energy in the world still comes from fossil fuels. With these numbers, she asserts, it’s easy to conclude that oil is still necessary.
“You can’t just turn a cruise ship around,” she said, emphasizing the importance of the naval sector. In this sense, she pointed out the need to update port infrastructure.
As an example, she cited the oil activities in the state of Rio de Janeiro that take place at sea. “An entire economy focused on the sea. We will need a completely updated port infrastructure, including terminals for oil and derivative storage,” she said.
Regarding natural gas, Regina Chambriard highlights that production continues to grow. “The country’s gas production doesn’t stop growing. In January [2023], the country produced 143 million cubic meters per day (m³) of natural gas, a volume more than sufficient to meet all of the country’s demand (…)”, she said.
According to her, this domestic gas cannot fully reach the final consumer due to lack of infrastructure for collection, transportation, and distribution. “The government, in 2019, understood that this gas market is monopsonistic as a producer, oligopolistic as a distributor, and holds the third most expensive gas among price references in Europe,” she explained.
As for refining, Regina Chambriard emphasized that Brazil is a continental country, increasingly in need of energy for its growth. In this regard, she claims that it’s necessary to expand the capacity for processing crude oil and thus add value to it in Brazil.
The Role Of Petrobras
Finally, the executive highlighted the role of Petrobras. According to her, a country is stronger the stronger its corporations are. “I wonder what that means when a company is shared and no longer acts as such a strong corporation in favor of Brazil. To determine whether we need a state-owned company or not, we must know Brazil,” Regina Chambriard stated.
And The Ibama Denial
In the interview, she also spoke about Ibama’s denial of the licensing request for drilling an exploratory well in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, after ten years since the area was auctioned.
For her, one should not be reckless and license at any cost. “But it is also true that we need to be more prepared to face the challenge of timely licensing, lest we condemn Brazil to stagnation,” she said.
In this sense, she emphasizes that the Ministry of the Environment cannot “usurp” the power of concession from the Presidency of the Republic. “It is in this context that the intervention of the President of the Republic is advocated. It is he who has a mandate to establish national priorities on behalf of the people, as these grants have the approval of the CNPE and the Presidency,” she highlighted.
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