Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

The context of the pandemic radically changed the planning of several organisations and it was no different at Petrobras. Our first challenge was dealing with people. One of the focuses of Petrobras’ legal department is to always be close to our client, experiencing the reality of the business. The pandemic context forced us to accelerate a process of digital transformation, from real to virtual, without impacting the legal security of our operations. During this scenario, work fronts were established with the participation of the legal department at various levels, such as the operational response structure, the group responsible for decisions and forwarding proposals for all issues involving the pandemic. Through this group, we managed to maintain the operation in 100% of our assets and accelerate the transition to teleworking of 100% of the administrative staff, while being close to our client’s business and focusing on people. During this period, we promoted several virtual meetings between managers, lawyers and business partners to discuss technical and management issues, which has become a current management practice for legal.

Concerned about the effects of the pandemic on mental health, we created a diversity, inclusion and welfare committee, to discuss relevant topics that affect our employees and society as a whole. This way, we are attentive to the care of people, without forgetting to look at the company’s business.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

In our culture, we have values ​​that reinforce the knowledge of the business by in-house lawyers. Legal is completely focused on Petrobras’ success and acts as co-responsible for the execution of the company’s strategic plan.

In order to achieve our goals, our structure is organised by partners and business segments, with lawyers specialised in client matters, inserted in the decision-making process. For each board, there is a specialised legal sector that contributes to finding the best solutions for the business, within the principles of legality, compliance and ethics.

The unusual business environment created by the pandemic has been swiftly followed by other shocks. Are you now putting more emphasis on preparing for the unforeseen and, if so, what does this entail?

Brazil’s regulatory and legal environment has always been a challenge. We go through constant and intense changes and our role requires us to adapt quickly. Though it is unlikely we will be prepared for all uncertainties, we will deal better with these situations if we present faster responses. This has been the way for our legal department to deal internally with complex issues of our society, such as restrictive measures during the pandemic, labour reform, transfer of rights, new gas regulatory framework, the context of the Operation Car Wash, and pricing policy. These are topics so specific to the Petrobras context that external support is unlikely to be more agile in providing effective responses. In the current post-pandemic scenario, we are experiencing a global energy shock, with many discussions about the transition to cleaner sources, and we are preparing for it, reflecting on what our role will be to adapt quickly to the ESG context of low carbon emissions, which is already a reality in the world market.