BRAZILIAN state-controlled oil company Petrobras has approved a new commercial strategy to define its diesel and gasoline prices in the domestic market, replacing the existing fuel pricing formula used by its refineries. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from the leftist Workers' Party (PT) promised during his campaign last year that he would look into partially decoupling Petrobras' diesel and gasoline prices from international markets and introduce other parameters in an effort towards what he called "Brazilianising" them. The review marks a change in the company's long-running import parity policy (PPI), first implemented in 2016 during the administration of former president Michel Temer, which called for adjustments based on variations of international crude prices and on the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Brazilian real. These measures helped restore investor confidence after successive PT governments had subjected Petrobras to price controls, resulting in a net debt for the company of more than $100 billion.
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