By Rodrigo Viga Gaier

RIO DE JANEIRO -Petrobras’ Chief Executive Joaquim Silva e Luna declared Monday that he won’t leave Brazil’s state-run oil corporation despite criticisms from President Jairbolsonaro.

Retired army general Luna compared Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s attempt to increase prices to a battle. Luna stated in an interview to Reuters that the rise was necessary or Brazil might have experienced fuel shortages.

“I’m a soldier. I feel at home on the battlefield. It is my comfort zone. I don’t run from it. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” Luna said. “There’s no crisis.”

Bolsonaro hired Luna last year to fill the position after Roberto Castello Branco had been fired for disagreeing with Bolsonaro’s pricing policy.

Petrobras is trying to keep up with global fuel markets through its domestic prices. After the Russia-invasion of Ukraine, global oil prices soared and Petrobras announced that they would increase gasoline prices at their refinery gate by 19% as well as diesel prices by 25 percent.

“The company responds to people’s problems. The two wars in Ukraine have crippled society. Luna explained that we needed the hike or risked shortages.

Bolsonaro, however, criticized this weekend’s move and said that he will not intervene in the markets. Bolsonaro intends to run for re-election in the October presidential elections, in which Bolsonaro is expected to be criticized again by the increase in prices.

Bolsonaro said to reporters that Petrobras made an “absurd profit” at an “atypical time in the world”.