“Previously, you saw a company with no future, failing to invest, and paying out exorbitant dividends compared to its peers”, Petrobras CEO Jean Paul Prates said in a news conference Friday. “Now we’ll continue oil activities, but with one eye in the future,” he said, citing investments in renewable energy and hydrogen.
Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petrobras announced a 31% increase to its five-year investment plan in a major shift away from the cost-control strategy that had prevailed under previous management.
The first budget since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to power rose to US$102 billion, the company said in a filing Thursday. It is the largest spending plan that Petrobras has released since 2015. The company said the increase is related to new projects, including potential acquisitions, as well as costs inflation and maintaining assets that the previous management planned to sell.
