- China to boost credit for property market, renovate 1 mn homes
- New York fight back to take 2-1 lead over Lynx in WNBA Finals
- Family feud reignites over Singapore ex-PM's historic home
- ECB set to cut rates again as inflation cools
- Malinin, Sakamoto headline pre-Winter Olympics figure skating season
- Prospective Paris FC takeover could transform French football landscape
- Asian markets rally, with eyes on China housing briefing
- China's underground lab seeks answer to deep scientific riddle
- China toughens Taiwan stance over president's sovereignty defence
- BTS member J-hope discharged from South Korean military
- How Indigenous guards saved a Colombian lake from overtourism
- Despite threats, Florida abortion advocate fights on
- Garcia Luna: Mexico's 'supercop' turned cartel abettor
- North Korea says constitution now defines South as 'hostile' state
- Vietnam death row tycoon faces verdict in new trial
- Menendez brothers' family call for release as US prosecutors review evidence
- Fiery Harris vows break from Biden in testy Fox interview
- Fiery Harris claims break from Biden in testy Fox interview
- Raytheon to pay $950 mn over fraud, bribery schemes: US
- Fiery Harris uses testy Fox interview to claim break from Biden
- Water crisis threatening world food production: report
- Mexico's ex-security chief sentenced to over 38 years in US prison
- One Direction's Liam Payne falls to death at Argentina hotel
- Climate change worsened deadly Nepal floods, scientists say
- Alcaraz will face 'difficult' clash with 'idol' Nadal
- US says India has removed alleged agent in assassination plot
- Barca hit nine in Women's Champions League, Bayern overcome Juve
- Harris courts Trump-skeptic Republicans with Fox interview
- Global stock markets diverge as investors focus on earnings
- Worms and snails handle the pressure 2,500m below the Pacific surface
- Serena Williams has grapefruit-sized cyst removed from neck
- Lavreysen wins record-equalling 14th world cycling track title
- School's out! Argentina students study in the street to protest budget cuts
- Lower rates, surging stock market fail to ignite US IPO market
- Pogba 'willing to give up money' to stay at Juve
- Few countries have drawn up nature protection plans: UN
- Biden to make farewell trip to Germany as Ukraine war rages
- EU announces 30 mn euros to stem Senegal irregular migration
- Italy extends surrogacy ban to couples seeking it abroad
- Panama Canal crossings down 29 percent due to drought
- 'Clear indications' India violated Canada's sovereignty: Trudeau
- World champion Springboks to host Italy in 2025, Moerat to miss November tour
- Trump claims to be 'father of IVF' at all-female campaign stop
- WHO demands space to finish Gaza polio vaccination
- Mitchell left out of England squad for Autumn internationals
- Real Madrid back Mbappe amid Swedish rape investigation reports
- Middle East crisis top-of-mind at first EU-Gulf summit
- Israeli minister criticises Macron over France defence show ban
- Global stock markets diverge as markets focus on earmings
- Who said what on Tuchel's appointment as England manager
Ex-regulator confirmed as new chief of Brazil's Petrobras
Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobras, confirmed former regulator Magda Chambriard as its new chief executive Friday, 10 days after left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sacked her predecessor.
Lula has been pushing for Petrobras to invest more, saying it will boost Latin America's biggest economy -- a spending spree resisted by investors.
Petrobras said its board had named Chambriard as a member and elected her chief executive, effective immediately. She is the second woman to hold the post, after Graca Foster, from 2012 to 2015.
The 66-year-old chemical and civil engineer started her career at Petrobras in 1980, then led Brazil's oil and natural gas agency, ANP, from 2012 to 2016.
Chambriard replaces Jean Paul Prates, whose sacking was announced on May 14, after less than 18 months on the job, triggering turbulence at Petrobras, the key player in the world's seventh-biggest oil producing country.
Prates's ouster followed a spat between Petrobras and shareholders over dividend payments, which heightened concerns about the government's influence in the publicly traded company's decision-making.
Prates, a former state senator, faced fierce criticism after Petrobras announced it would not pay an extraordinary dividend to investors following its second-highest net profit ever last year, $24.8 billion.
The March announcement caused the company's share price to plummet, and was seen by some analysts and opponents as direct government intervention.
Lula accused Petrobras executives of putting the company's shareholders ahead of the Brazilian people.
The Petrobras board eventually approved the dividend payment in late April.
Just over half of Petrobras's capital is held by the Brazilian state, and the rest by shareholders.
- Pressure to drill -
Chambriard's confirmation was widely expected.
Lula's office had said the same day Prates was sacked that the president would nominate her to replace him as CEO.
Petrobras shares were up after the news was announced, trading just under one percent higher on the Sao Paulo stock exchange's Ibovespa index.
Petrobras, Brazil's biggest company, has been through turbulent times in recent years.
Chambriard is its sixth CEO in less than three years.
The oil giant was devastated by a massive corruption scandal in the 2010s under Lula's Workers' Party, when investigators uncovered a massive pay-to-play scheme in which a laundry list of politicians received bribes for ensuring construction companies' access to juicy Petrobras contracts.
More recently, the company's pricing policies drew fierce criticism from far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), under whom Petrobras went through four CEOs in rapid succession.
Chambriard, who previously spent more than two decades at Petrobras, will face the challenge of steadying the company after weeks of instability triggered by rumors Prates was on his way out.
She will also face competing pressures to chart a course for the energy transition even as Lula looks to invest big in traditional oil and gas projects.
Environmentalists are furious over the government's push to explore for oil near the mouth of the Amazon river, an ecologically sensitive region that studies suggest could hold massive crude deposits.
P.Silva--AMWN