Bolsonaro's candidates for Petrobras presidency rejected the proposal on allegations of conflicts of interest

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro's two proposals to occupy the top positions of state-owned Petrobras have resigned after warning of the conflict of interest that both would have if they took office.

The last of them was the economist and consultant Adriano Pires, who informed the Planalto Palace on Monday that he would give up the presidency of the state oil company, for which he had been elected last week to replace General Joaquim da Silva e Luna, according to the local newspaper 'O Globo'.

The reasons that Pires has put on the table are the conflicts of interest that there would be, the same reasons given on Sunday by Rodolfo Landim for not accepting the head of the board of directors of the state oil company.

Pires' decision was made official to the Executive through a letter sent to the Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, in which he communicated his withdrawal.

“It was clear to me that I would not be able to reconcile my work as a consultant with the presidency of Petrobras. I started the procedures to disassociate myself. Throughout the process, however, I realized that unfortunately I am unable to do so in such a short time,” said Pires, who thanked Albuquerque and President Bolsonaro.

Among Pires' clients is Carlos Suárez, businessman and partner of gas distribution companies, and friend for decades of Landim, who justified his decision not to accept the government's invitation to concentrate all his efforts on Flamengo, a Brazilian football team.

The businessman and engineer, who worked in the state oil company for more than two decades and presides over Flamengo, expressed in a statement his desire to devote all his time to “further strengthening” the most popular football club in Brazil.

In addition to proximity to several companies in the oil and gas sector, Landim has also appeared in some corruption investigations related to the media and almost infinite Lava Jato operation, with ramifications beyond the Brazilian State.

Before taking a decision, the appointment of Pires had already been questioned by the Prosecutor's Office and the Court of Auditors precisely because of this conflict of interest due to his intensive activity as a consultant to several companies in the sector, so he asked that he not preside over Petrobras before he had to carry out a more intensive investigation to take office.

They objected to the fact that Pires founded and currently leads the Brazilian Infrastructure Center, “which has been providing services to major oil, gas and energy multinationals for more than 20 years.”

The Petrobras Board of Directors was scheduled to meet next Tuesday, April 13, to choose who would be the new president of the state company. Both, according to internal reports, would have difficulty exceeding the committee's criteria.

Bolsonaro is keeping the company under pressure, which controls the Brazilian market and implemented constant adjustments following the international price of crude oil, as dictated by its pricing policy.

In mid-March, Petrobras announced an 18.77% increase in the price of gasoline, 24.9% of diesel and 16.1% of propane and butane, after two months without raising prices. A decision that was widely attacked by President Bolsonaro.

Silva e Luna himself, an Army reserve general, had been appointed in February last year also because of Bolsonaro's disagreement with price increases during the administration of economist Roberto Castello Branco.

Since 2017, Petrobras has maintained a policy in line with international values to set fuel prices, despite Brazil being one of the largest producers of some of these raw materials.

Petrobras shares were trading in red, with a loss of 0.76% after recovering during the day on the São Paulo Stock Exchange.

(With information from Europa Press and AFP)

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