Brazil: Lula can repurchase refinery privatized by Bolsonaro, says minister

Minister Alexandre Silveira of Mines and Energy defended this Thursday (18) the repurchase of Petrobras assets by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

Among them is the Mataripe refinery in Bahia, which was privatized under the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in 2021 for R$10.1 billion.

“The largest refinery in Bahia was sold to private capital.”

“If it depends on the Minister of Mines and Energy, on his will as a Brazilian citizen, and passionate about Bahia, this refinery should return to Petrobras’,” he said to Folha de São Paulo.

The statement occurred during an event in Salvador, where Silveira also cited the R$12 billion investment by the Mubadala Capital fund from Abu Dhabi to construct a green diesel and aviation kerosene plant.

It was this same fund that acquired the Mataripe refinery.

Silveira criticized the Petrobras divestment project elaborated in the past government and said he intends to “modernize the current refineries and, if possible, reacquire some assets that are fundamental and strategic in the question of fuels.”

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