Parente: adjustments to investment plans will not reduce Petrobras output

Speaking this Wednesday (1 February), the president of Petrobras, Pedro Parente, assured company shareholders that ensuring the safety of investment operations and responsibly halving Petrobras' deleveraging is among the priorities of the State-owned oil enterprise. Parente spoke to investors at the Latin American Investor Conference, currently being held in São Paulo.

"We will not reach our financial target in a way that poses the risk of jeopardising the security of our company for people, for the environment," Parente said.

In that sense, Parente said that Petrobras is following an action plan (announced in September last year) guided by four guidelines, including a more flexible pricing policy, the implementation of the partnership and divestitures programmes and better cost efficiency for operations and investments.

"We want to have prices that fully adhere to the international market," he pondered. Parente also stated that the State-owned oil company will indeed go through an adjustment programme, but that this should not impact its oil and gas production, which has been growing in recent months.

"Our plans are to make Petrobras' investments more profitable, but we will not do so by reducing output".

Parente also highlighted that the partnerships and divestitures programmes not only bring resources to Petrobras, but also allow for exchanges of knowledge and experience on the exploration and refining of oil and gas, which reduces the risk of these operations for Petrobras. "We have reached a total USD 13.6 billion in transactions in 2016," he added.

Parente also ruled out the possibility of privatising Petrobras. "Petrobras is a very beloved company. We all cheer with its achievements, like when we managed to produce oil from deep waters. Therefore [privatisation] is not part of our agenda. Our agenda is to ensure good results for Petrobras".