"Petrobras doesn’t lose to anyone," says Lula

247 - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended on Monday (24) that Petrobras should become the world's largest energy company. He cited several areas in the oil exploration sector where the state-owned company leads and celebrated the resumption of investments in the shipbuilding industry, which had suffered dismantling, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs in recent years.

"Petrobras doesn’t lose to anyone in deepwater exploration, without incidents occurring, so why don’t we turn it into the world's largest oil company?" said Lula during the contract signing for the expansion of Petrobras and Transpetro's fleet in Rio Grande (RS).

Lula strongly criticized the dismantling of the shipbuilding industry after the coup against President Dilma Rousseff and reaffirmed his commitment to rebuilding it.

"We will rebuild the shipbuilding industry. It wasn’t easy to establish it. We have 8,000 kilometers of coastline and could never have dispensed with a cabotage industry or the use of ships, trains, and trucks. In Brazil, 95% of our export transportation is done by ship. Why don’t we have a powerful shipbuilding industry? Why do we have to buy from other countries?" he questioned.

Lula stated that a country with a strong shipbuilding industry is more competitive in international trade:

"A country with a strong shipbuilding industry becomes more competitive in international trade, which flows 90% through maritime routes."

According to the president, Petrobras is committed to financing the energy transition while advancing oil projects.

"I am against fossil fuels when we can do without them, but until then, we need them, because Petrobras’ money will help drive the energy transition revolution," he said.