The oil price policy, the internal market and the public interest

Abstract

The article analyzes the negative impacts of the current Petrobras fuel pricing policy, in force since November 2016, in the Brazilian domestic market and to the detriment of public interest. By adopting the international parity price (IPP) as a reference for supplying the domestic market, the country, which is self-sufficient in oil production, was exposed to the volatility and speculation characteristic of international oil barrel prices and of the foreign exchange market. This analysis is made from the perspective of economic law as a political-legal space for the accumulation and reproduction of capital. It defends the change of this policy in order to enforce the constitutional provision about the use of oil income being linked to the purposes of the economic order in general and, in particular, the sense of public utility of fuel supply as a means to preserve the national interest, valorize the domestic market and technological autonomy and promote economic and social development, with the generation of employment and (re)industrialization. It concludes with the suggestion of measures aimed at reducing the exposure of the national economy to the uncertainties of the international market, discouraging the export of crude oil and encouraging the expansion of refining, in order to redesign the institutional architecture of this activity for the benefit of economic sovereignty.