Brazil's government will reappoint its representatives to the board of state-run oil firm Petrobras, sources said on Friday, a sign energy minister Alexandre Silveira is maintaining his influence over an administration he has criticised.
Silveira is in charge of Brazil's mining and energy ministry, which controls six of the 11 seats on the board. Two sources said the ministry had informed Petrobras of the intended reappointment in a letter.
Silveira has publicly criticized Petrobras' management and CEO Jean Paul Prates over the past year, and tried to push the company to lower fuel prices.
The reappointment maintains Silveira's hold on Petrobras and occurred amid recent reports in Brazilian media that Prates wanted to oust Silveira's appointees. The reappointment of the representatives had been scheduled.
Petrobras is Brazil's largest oil producer and one of the most strategically important state-run firms.
Prates had asked officials privately whether he could choose one of the six government representatives but the idea was soon discarded, said one of the sources.
After government figures criticized Prates over the last year for not investing enough, he presented a $102 billion business plan for the 2024-2028 period, one of the largest in the firm's history.
At the time, criticism from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also led to speculation that Prates could be on his way out, to be replaced by someone more willing to use Petrobras to boost the economy and generate local jobs.
The election of the board will take place on April 25, at Petrobras' annual general shareholders' meeting.
Petrobras confirmed that it had received a list of board appointments from the mines and energy ministry, but did not disclose the names of those appointed.
(Reuters - Reporting by Marta Nogueira; Editing by Kylie Madry, David Ljunggren and David Gregorio)