Petrobras plans to name veteran engineer Maria das Graças Foster as chief executive, promoting a respected technocrat from the company's ranks in a bid to turn around the Brazilian oil giant's lacklustre performance in recent years. Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras, Latin America's largest publicly traded company, said on Monday that its board will vote on February 9 to promote Foster, who is currently natural gas and power director.
She would replace José Sérgio Gabrielli, an economist who has led the company since 2005 but had little oil industry experience beforehand. Gabrielli, a former university professor and long-time member of the ruling Workers' Party, plans to pursue a role in politics, government sources told Reuters. His departure from Petrobras has been rumored for months.
The shake-up at Petrobras may also affect other company directors, said sources close to the Petrobras board who were not authorised to speak publicly. The change in leadership comes a crucial time for the company, which is scrambling to tap tens of billions of barrels of newly discovered reserves in ultradeep waters off Brazil's southern coast. It holds the world's biggest oil spending budget, worth more than $224 billion over the next half-decade.
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