RIO DE JANEIRO—Depending on who you ask, Roberto Castello Branco, the new chief executive of Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA, will either save the indebted oil major—or strip it to the bone.
Tapped by President Jair Bolsonaro, who took power on New Year’s Day, Castello Branco had said in a June newspaper column he thought Petrobras—as the company is known—should be privatized, a hardcore proposal even in an administration packed with free market advocates.
