The firing of Jean Paul Prates as chief executive of Brazilian oil giant Petrobras looks likely to result in a softening of the company’s ambitions for offshore wind after his successor was named as Magda Chambriard, a former of head of the country’s oil and gas regular ANP.
Prates was sacked by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday night after weeks of tension over the question of how much the profits made by the state-controlled company should be ploughed back into investments as opposed to paid out as dividends.
Prates made an enemy of Brazilian Mines & Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira and lost the support of Lula when he abstained on a Petrobras board vote over the proposed retention of extraordinary dividends back in March.