Lula asks the Bolsonaro government to stop the sale of Petrobras assets

The transition team of the president-elect of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvaasked the current administration to stop the sale of assets of the state oil company Petrobras until a new Minister of Mines and Energy is appointed.

The teacher Mauricio Tolmasquimappointed last week to participate in the mining and energy group in the transition process, made the remarks after a meeting in Brasilia.

A second member of the team, Senator John Paul Pratessaid Lula is expected to decide who will be the next president of Petrobras in early December.

Prates, who was a top energy policy adviser during Lula’s electoral campaign, is considered one of the possible candidates for the job of chief executive of the oil giant.

However, his appointment at Petrobras could face regulatory hurdles, as Prates ran for mayor of the city of Natal in 2020, which would prevent him from holding the position under Brazilian law.

Lula will take office as president on January 1.

Prates also said that the transition team will meet with the company’s management to ask for the suspension of ongoing strategic processes, such as the sale of its 51% stake at Transportadora Brasileira Gasoduto Bolivia-Brasil (TBG), which operates a natural gas connection connecting Bolivia and southern Brazil.

Decisions related to TBG “even involve the country’s foreign policy, because they involve Bolivia, they involve Argentina’s gas policy. The entire gas pipeline scheme that is being formed in the southern cone, and you have to be calm to decide on this.” , said.

The senator did not specify when the meeting with Petrobras is scheduled.