Petrobras clarifies that, contrary to what was stated in the newspaper articles “Diretoria da Petrobras foi alertada de desvios” (“Petrobras’ management was warned of theft”) and “Petrobras não nega que Graça e Cosenza sabiam de irregularidades” (“Petrobras does not deny that Graça and Cosenza knew of irregularities”), the company CEO, Maria das Graças Silva Foster, was not informed about the irregularities in question by employee Venina Velosa Fonseca before November 20, 2014.

The emails sent on April 2, 2009, August 26, 2011 and October 7, 2011 to Foster, then Director for Natural Gas and Electricity, and the email sent to her on February 14, 2012, the day after she was made CEO, did not mention any irregularities related to the Abreu e Lima Refinery (RNEST), the Downstream Communications Area or the Bunker Fuel Sales Area. Two months after Foster was made CEO, on April 27, 2012, then Director Paulo Roberto Costa handed in his letter of resignation.

The aforementioned topics were only brought to the CEO’s attention through Fonseca’s recent email, dated November 20, 2014, when the employee had already been removed from her managerial position. By that date, the irregularities in the Downstream Communications Area and RNEST had already been investigated by Petrobras’ internal investigation committees, and the irregularities in the Bunker Sales Area had been investigated by working groups. The CEO responded to Fonseca on November 21, 2014, stating that she had forwarded the matter to Director José Carlos Cosenza and Petrobras’ Legal Area to examine the adoption of appropriate measures.

With regard to Director José Carlos Cosenza, on May 27, 2009, when he was Executive Manager for Refining, he received from Fonseca, without any additional comments, a forwarded email dated May 26, 2009 sent by her to then Director Paulo Roberto Costa, reporting risks in earthmoving activities at RNEST that could add to the project’s costs and duration, but without warning of any signs of theft. As of that date, the Corporate Executive Downstream Area, led by Fonseca herself, was responsible for monitoring the RNEST project in the Downstream Department.

Regarding the irregularities in the Downstream Communications Area, Director José Carlos Cosenza did not receive anything, and concerning the sale of bunker fuel, when he received news of the irregularities, through the email sent by Fonseca on April 9, 2014, Petrobras had already implemented measures to deal with them, and the procedures were already completely agreed upon and in compliance with corporate standards to make the related commercial operations more secure and traceable.

In terms of the irregularities in the Bunker Sales Area, Petrobras set up internal committees in 2008 and 2009 to investigate signs of irregularities in contracts and payments made by the Downstream Communications Area. The former manager of this area was dismissed for just cause on April 3, 2009, for having breached the company’s internal procedures. This dismissal was not put into effect on that occasion because the manager’s employment contract was suspended when he took medical leave. The dismissal was made effective in 2013. The results of the committees’ analyses were submitted to the Office of the Comptroller General and the Rio de Janeiro State Public Prosecution Ministry, and a lawsuit is under way aimed at obtaining compensation for the damage caused to the company by the former employee.

Regarding RNEST, in 2014 Petrobras established an internal investigation committee to analyze the procurement procedures for construction work on RNEST. The results were reported to the competent authorities (Federal Public Prosecution Ministry, Federal Police, Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Comptroller General and Joint Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry) for the appropriate measures to be taken. In addition, the company made several management changes in line with the results of this internal investigation committee, which identified non-compliance with internal procedures.

Concerning the bunker sales procedures, internal investigations initiated in 2012 indicated non-conformities in operations of this kind carried out by Petrobras Singapore Private Limited (PSPL). Based on the results of these investigations, the following measures were taken: (i) instigation of an audit at PSPL; (ii) adjustments to the managerial structure of PSPL and Petrobras, in areas related to bunker purchase and sale activities; (iii) replacement of people who worked directly in bunker purchase and sale processes; (iv) definition of new corporate standard for the sale of bunker by the parent company and subsidiaries; and (v) application of penalties to the employees involved.