[ad_1]
Petrobrás closed yesterday with considerable loss, one of the most controversial chapters in its history. The state company concluded the sale of the Pasadena refinery in the United States to Chevron US for $ 562 million ($ 2.1 billion). The refinery had, however, cost the coffers of the Brazilian oil company at least $ 1.2 billion (R $ 4.4 billion).
The purchase of Pasadena is done in two stages. In 2006, under the administration of Lula, Petrobras with the approval of the board of directors, paid 360 million dollars to the Belgian company Astra Oil for 50% of the refinery. This is a very controversial case, considering that a year ago, the Belgian group had only disbursed 42 million US dollars for 100% of the unit.
But the case, already bad, would become even worse. Certain clauses of the contract forced Petrobrás to maintain unity in certain circumstances. And after some commercial disputes, Astra has triggered one of these clauses. Thus, in 2012, Petrobras paid an additional US $ 820 million for the remaining 50%.
In March 2014, the state revealed that the then president, Dilma Rousseff, who in 2006 was chairman of Petrobrás' board of directors, had voted in favor of the company . She stated at the time that she had approved it only because she relied on a "technically flawed summary" that omitted damaging clauses that, if she knew , would not approve. This summary was allegedly presented by the director of Petrobrás' international zone, Nestor Cerveró, who was then found guilty and imprisoned for corruption.
Last year, the unit, with a refining capacity of 110,000 barrels per day and a storage of 5.1 million barrels of oil and products oil companies, was finally included in the list of badets offered for sale by Petrobrás. The agreement with Chevron is still subject to regulatory approvals. But the name of Pasadena will long be remembered as a symbol of corruption involving Petrobras.
[ad_2]
Source link
