AmericasGas

Petrobras penalised for unfair practices in gas distribution

Brazil’s anti-trust regulator Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defence) has recommended penalising the country’s troubled state oil firm Petrobras for allegedly ant-competitive behaviour towards a rival in the natural gas distribution market, according to Reuters.

Cade’s superintendent’s office probed a period from 2011 to 2015 when Petrobras offered a discounted price for natural gas transported on its own network, effectively discriminating against rival Comgas in the Sao Paulo market.

Following this recommendation, a case will be heard before a Cade tribunal in the future.

Cade has wide powers of review, investigation and punishment in furthering a culture of free competition and preventing harmful concentration of economic power.

Petrobras, with extensive offshore oil and gas interests, has been at the hub of a massive bribes-for-inflated-contracts scandal that has rocked Brazil’s economic and political status quo.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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