June 21, 2022

15:06

Marcela Leiros – from Amazon Agency

BRASILIA – A public hearing in the House of Representatives debated on Monday, 20, the sale of the Manaus Refinery (Reman), of Petrobras, to the Atem Group. This is the second hearing held in Congress aiming to prevent the privatization of the refinery.

Petrobras, the Only Petrol Workers Federation (FUP), the Union of Petrol Workers of the State of Amazonas (Sindipetro-AM), the Institute of Strategic Studies of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (Ineep), the Intersyndicate Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (Dieese), and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) participated in the hearing.

During the session, the president of Sindipetro-AM, Marcus Ribeiro, pointed out that the sale of the refinery is another attack on the Amazonian population and the Northern Region. “What is at stake is the country’s sovereignty, the situation of the Brazilian people, what will happen with the sale of the refineries. It is the situation of the people of the North, who already suffer so much with several attacks from this government, and this attack of the refinery sale will be one more for the Amazon population and for the people of the North Region”, he reiterated.

As AMAZON AGENCY reported in March of this year, the refinery has the capacity to supply the consumer market of the states of Pará, Amapá, Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas, and Roraima. Among the arguments used by Petrobras for the sale of the refinery are the increase in competition and the reduction in fuel prices.

Also according to Sindipetro-AM, Reman is being sold for 70% of the market value: the value of US$ 180 million should be at least between US$ 279 million and US$ 375 million.

Work and income

Ineep researcher Carla Ferreira explained that, from the Amazon perspective, the privatization impacts will affect income and employment, tax collection in Amazonas, the supply chain, and the relationship with local society, besides the geographic isolation, which will affect fuel prices in the region. FUP estimates that Reman alone is responsible for approximately 17% of the total tax collection in the state and 19% of the total ICMS.

“We evaluate that it may have an impact on income and on the quality of jobs, fiscal impacts, because of the relevance of the refinery’s presence for the state’s tax collection, but also for the collection of royalties where it is installed. In relation to the price impact, we observe that, starting with Rlam [privatized refinery in Bahia], we evaluate that the price impact will be, in fact, negative, mainly due to the geographic isolation that can worsen the price not only in the Amazonas market, but in the region as a whole”, she added.

Refinery capacity

The manager of strategy, planning, business positioning and management of downstream and midstream programs (D&M) from Petrobras, Carlos Alberto Meireles Marçal, pointed out that Reman has the capacity to produce 46 thousand barrels per day, about 2% of the Brazilian refining capacity, and that one should look at the expectation of generating results, and not by evaluations based on historical data.

“As for the asset valuation: it is based on the expectation of future generation of results and, currently, the projections of refining values cannot be supported exclusively by conventional evaluations based on hysterical data, since the expectations of transition to a low carbon matrix ends up significantly affecting the value of the refining assets in the long and medium term”, he said.

“Regarding the proposal made by Atem, it was examined by Petrobras’ technical team, in light of its internal financial assessment, and was supported by an external financial advisory and supported by two independent external opinions. We had an audit from the TCU [Federal Audit Court] that concluded that no improprieties or irregularities were identified”, added Marçal.