Finance minister: I’ve always opposed purchase of 2nd half of Pasadena

Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega mentioned during a hearing at the Chamber of Deputies that he had always opposed Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras’s purchase of the second half of Pasadena, a refinery in Texas. “I wasn’t a member of the [company’s board of directors] then, nor was I finance minister, but I’m sure there was an executive report and a debate [on the purchase]. But I was a member of the board  when they bought the second half, and I was against it. The board did not approve the [purchase of] the second part based on the executive reports,” he said.

Mantega further pointed out that, when the second section of the refinery was acquired, the firm’s board of directors was made up of renowned executives such as entrepreneurs Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter and Fábio Barbosa, and economist Cláudio Haddad.

“At the time, Petrobras, wanted, and very rightfully so, to get into the American market by having its oil refined in the US. However, I did not find [the purchase] convenient. It’s in the records. We were forced [to make the purchase] by the arbitration court,” the minister noted.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira

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