Brazil gives up on nationalization of state-run oil giant

Brazilian officials announced on Tuesday that the privatization of state-owned oil giant Petrobras was no longer on the table after President Jair Bolsonaro said he would appoint a market-friendly consultant as the company’s new chief executive officer.

Brazil’s Economy Minister Paulo Guedes told reporters of plans to privatize several companies, but when asked about Petrobras, he responded, “it is not on the table,” Reuters reported.

From his earliest days on the campaign trail, Brazil’s conservative president has said he wants to privatize the South American nation’s largest oil company before his term ends in 2022, Valor Economico reported.

In August 2019, Guedes even told reporters, “There are big guys thinking they won’t be privatized, but we will get there.”

Although it appears Petrobras’ privatization is no longer on the horizon, Bolsonaro has tapped a well-known free-market academic and energy consultant as the oil company’s next leader – ending the tenure of CEO Joaquim Silva e Luna less than a year after he was first appointed.

"I don't think the change of CEO of this company will be a major factor at all," Guedes noted.