Agência Brasil

Rio - The president of Petrobras, José Sérgio Gabrielli, said on Friday (21) that the country's achievement of self-sufficiency in petroleum production was obtained through the efforts of the company's workforce and the Brazilian people, who never accepted putting Petrobras on the "privatization block."

In a speech at the National Historical Museum, where a ceremony was held to commemorate the conquest of self-sufficiency, Gabrielli took a retrospective look at the company's history and pointed out that Petrobras is now the world's fourteenth largest petroleum company and the seventh among petroleum companies that are publicly traded.

He also emphasized that, in 2005, when platforms P-43 and P-48 started up operations, the company raised its daily production to 1.8 million barrels, boosting annual production by 13%. "Notwithstanding this production effort, we were able to replace our reserves in the proportion of 1.3 barrels for each barrel we produced."

Gabrielli also recalled that, to expand Petrobras' foreign presence, the company acquired exploratory blocs in Africa, South America, and the United States, purchased assets belonging to Shell in Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and bought 50% of a refinery in the United States. He concluded his speech by referring to the outlook for increasing biodiesel and ethanol production as an option to replace petroleum as energy sources.

Translation: David Silberstein