Getúlio Vargas
Co-founder 1953Background
Getúlio Vargas, as President of Brazil, championed the 'O Petróleo é Nosso' campaign and signed Law 2,004 on October 3, 1953, establishing Petrobras as a state monopoly. His decision to nationalize the oil industry, rather than allowing foreign majors to develop the country's resources, established a tradition of economic nationalism that would define the company's approach to business for the next seven decades.
Role at Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras
Petrobras possesses a nationalistic, geopolitical founding story, rooted entirely in the aggressive push for Brazilian industrial independence following World War II and defined by a successful public pressure campaign. The company was officially founded in 1953 by Getúlio Vargas, the populist, powerful President of Brazil. At the time Brazil was dependent on heavily importing expensive foreign oil which was draining the national treasury and stunting industrial development. Furthermore, the global oil market was dominated by the 'Seven Sisters' (the cartelized American and European oil giants like Standard Oil and BP). In the late 1940s, an aggressive, patriotic popular movement swept across Brazil. The movement's famous, resonant slogan was 'O petróleo é nosso' ('The oil is ours'). Millions of Brazilian citizens, passionate students, and nationalistic military officers protested, demanding that foreign corporations must never be allowed to exploit Brazilian natural resources. Yielding to this overwhelming public pressure, President Vargas signed the historic law creating Petrobras in 1953, explicitly granting the state-owned company a legal monopoly over the lucrative exploration, production, refining, and transportation of all oil in Brazil. This nationalistic, state-sponsored origin established the complex, political corporate DNA of Petrobras. It was never intended to be a purely capitalist enterprise; from its inception it was designed to be the strategic engine of Brazilian national sovereignty.