By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Petrobras CEO Roberto Castello Branco announced an increase of R$0.10 per liter of diesel at refineries. The 4.84 percent increase is lower than the 5.7 percent the company announced and then suspended last week.
According to Castello Branco, the company’s pricing policy will continue to follow the variation of the diesel fuel in the international market. “We continue to strictly observe the maintenance of prices in line with international parity. This is and will continue to be our policy,” said the CEO during the press conference.
Castello Branco said that a price increase of R$0.10 will be applied at the refineries, but that the increase should not be passed on in full to the final consumer.
“The expectation is that the variation in the pump will be of less than R$0.10,” he said.
Branco said that Petrobras will continue to determine fuel prices. “The final word is mine,” he stated.
Regarding the rumors that he had been pressured by President Jair Bolsonaro not to increase diesel prices, Castello Branco was emphatic: “There was no interference, however small.”
According to Branco, Bolsonaro only alerted him about the potential for a new truckers’ strike.
“We all suffered as a result of the trucker’s strike,” he said. But he also stated that he considers the risk of a new truckers’ strike to be low.
Hours after the announcement, several local media outlets were reporting that a WhatsApp group of independent truckers was already calling for a strike in May.