Petrobras CEO Pedro Parente resigns

Pedro Parente has reportedly resigned from his position as Petrobras CEO. He informed President Michel Temer of his decision during a meeting in Brasília. While there are no details of his decision at this moment, it is probably related to the company’s pricing policy.

Since mid-2016, Petrobras‘s pricing policy has reflected the fluctuations of oil prices in the international market. The price updates were monthly, but in July 2017 started to happen almost on a daily basis. In May alone, fuel prices had gone up by 16 percent (until the beginning of the truckers’ strike).

Last week, Parente had declared that if the government were to change that policy, it would need to look for a new CEO for Petrobras. Over the last couple of days, however, the government has indicated it would want a change.

When Parente took over the state-owned firm, back in 2016, Petrobras was the most-indebted oil company in the world.

After being ravaged by Brazil’s biggest corruption scandal to date, Petrobras spent four years conducting an internal restructuring plan and underwent cost-cutting policies that sold many of its assets. Its market value, however, reached an all-time high of BRL 312 billion, up from BRL 67.8 billion just two years ago.