BRAZILIAN giant Petrobras has named Maria das Gracas Silva Foster to take over as chief executive, in place of Jose Sergio Gabrielli who is expected to move into mainstream politics.
The state-run oil and gas firm is expected to approve the appointment at its next meeting in February, Petrobras said.
Foster has been the director for natural gas and energy at Petrobras since 2007 and is expected to stick closely to the government's strategy for developing huge oil reserves discovered off Brazil's southeast coast in recent years.
Petrobras will be spending at least US$224 billion in coming years to extract billions of barrels of oil, and Foster's main task will be to cope with the challenges posed by such a vast and rapid expansion.
Foster, an engineer who is well respected in the oil industry, had been widely tipped as a successor to Gabrielli partly due to her long-standing ties to President Dilma Rousseff.
Gabrielli has served as Petrobras chief executive since 2005, but there have been constant reports recently that he would like to run for political office, most likely as governor of his home state of Bahia in northeast Brazil.
Oil and Gas News | Brazil
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