The president of Brazilian tanker company Transpetro has resigned after a little over a year in the role.
Parent oil company Petrobras said Gustavo Raposo Santos handed his notice in on Wednesday and will leave on Friday.
No reason was given for the departure. Petrobras said it will now consider the appointment of Transpetro director of services Luiz Eduardo Valente as president.
Raposo Santos, previously the company's financial director, took the top job in August 2020 after Cristiane Elia de Marsillac resigned for personal reasons.
He was also executive manager of corporate risk at Petrobras between 2017 and 2019.
The group said: "Petrobras' and Transpetro's board of directors are grateful for all the dedication of Gustavo Raposo as head of Transpetro, having made important advances and restructuring within the company."
Engineering background
Valente has a degree in chemical engineering and a doctorate in petroleum processing engineering.
He began his career at Petrobras in 1980, serving as general manager of the Presidente Getulio Vargas refinery.
Valente has also been executive manager for gas, chemicals and liquefaction at the group.
He also worked at petrochemical company Braskem, in which Petrobras has a shareholding, where he was director of the Comperj Project Phase II and vice president of investments & digital technologies.
Transpetro's 27-ship fleet comprises suezmaxes, aframaxes, product tankers and six LPG carriers, all built after 2011. There is also an anchor-handling tug built in 1976.
Veteran vessels retired
The shipowner has been clearing out older ships. In January, the 153,000-dwt Ataulfo Alves (built 2000) went for scrap at $430 per ldt, or nearly $10m, on an "as-is" basis in Indonesia.
More than a dozen elderly ships have left the fleet in the past two years.
Trading & logistics chief Andre Chiarini said at a December conference that Petrobras planned to remove a total of 17 tankers from its fleet.
"If necessary, we will look for new ships or chartered-in ships. It depends on our plans that are coming later on," he said.
