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Petrobras wants to be one of the world's five leaders in energy by 2020
Agência Brasil
Rio de Janeiro
Petroleumworld.com 08 16 07
The president of the Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras, José Sérgio Gabrielli, said yesterday (14) that the company intends to rank among the world's five largest – "and one of the favourites" – in the field of integrated energy by 2020."We will compete with the private sector, because we do not yet need government support to compete. Obviously, once we affect the private interests, we will be accused of being statists. What to do – we are acting as a competitive company, in a competitive environment, defined by the Brazilian Law of Petroleum."
During a lecture on the ten years of existence of Law No. 9,478, known as the Law of Petroleum, which opened up the exploration sector to other companies, which were then forbidden to compete with Petrobras, Gabrielli said that the law made the state-owned company more competitive by "reducing privileges."
To him, being state-owned does not automatically imply competitive advantages, as the company must observe a series of restrictions. "The private sector does not need to answer to 48 audits by the Federal Accounting Tribunal (TCU) in a three-month period, nor to undergo huge interrogatories to be able to own a refinery in the United States,” he compared.
On the other hand, the president at the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan), Eduardo Eugênio Gouvêa Vieira, criticised the possibility of the oil sector being dominated by the state-owned company, especially in the petrochemical field. "Petrobras is centralising, and this issue must be discussed by the Congress. Petrobras has a larger share now than it did in 1992. It owns 40% of the largest company in the sector, which is Brasken, and now it bought Suzano. Thus, it dominates the petrochemical market, in terms of percentage," he stated.
- Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
Agência Brasil 15 08 07
Copyright© 2007 Agência Brasil. All rights reserved.
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