Oil May Not Be Owned by Just One Company, but Several, According to Guedes

Minister Paulo Guedes Advocated For Opening The Oil Market For The Sake Of Competition And That Privatizations Depend On Congress

The Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, spoke about the government’s divestment program under President Bolsonaro; he reinforced the current government’s intention, not only in the oil industry. In The Fight Against Unemployment, Government Wants To Release R$ 65 Billion And Qualify The Unemployed.
“I want to privatize all state-owned companies. The decision is up to Congress,” Guedes said in an interview with Valor.

Although the sale of state-owned companies has not been approved by the STF, only the sale of subsidiaries has been authorized; the amount expected to be raised will help the government settle its accounts.
Paulo Guedes has the full support of President Bolsonaro, “The president is with us on privatization. Every day he asks: “Come on, Salim, we need to sell one a week! It’s taking too long!” he says to Salim Mattar, Secretary of Privatization and Divestment.”

Another important discussion involves the redistribution of pre-salt resources; in the minister’s opinion, the reforms will unlock investments in the oil sector and generate resources to meet state demands.

“The estimate of our pre-salt reserves is well above US$ 500 billion. Naturally, this will belong to those who explore, but there will be royalties, onerous assignment, taxes, a lot of things coming our way.”

The minister added: “At the same time, investments in infrastructure will come; there will be a shock of cheap energy; we will reduce gas prices by about 30% to 40% over the next two years, so a lot of good things are ahead.”

Finally, Paulo Guedes argued that this process will be accelerated with the opening of the market. “Instead of having one oil company, for example, we will have several.”

Sale Of Eletrobras

R$ 16.2 Billion Is The Expected Revenue From The Privatization Of Eletrobras Announced By The Government. The amount included in the budget proposal for the next year, sent to Congress on Friday, the 30th, has been updated; previously, the expected revenue by the government was R$ 12 billion.