RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Pedro Parente, the chief executive officer of Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA, has resigned his post on Friday after a nationwide trucker strike forced the government to lower diesel prices.

In a statement, the company said the board will choose an interim CEO on Friday and that the company’s other top executives will remain. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Pedro Parente, the chief executive officer of Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA who breathed new life into the scandal-plagued company, resigned on Friday, after a paralyzing nationwide trucker strike forced the government to lower diesel prices.

The company said in a statement the board would choose an interim CEO on Friday and that the company’s other top executives would remain.

Petrobras ADRs plunged as much as 14 percent, while trading in the Brazil-listed shares was suspended following the announcement.

A key plank of Parente’s turnaround campaign for Petrobras and a condition for his taking the job in 2016 was freedom to control fuel prices. He sought to align those more closely with international markets through nearly daily price adjustments.

But on Sunday President Michel Temer, governing with rock-bottom approval ratings, announced plans to placate the striking truck drivers - who were protesting the high cost of diesel - by freezing fuel prices on a monthly basis and taking other measures to bring domestic diesel prices down.

Although Temer promised the government would compensate Petrobras for any losses, the move may have crossed Parente’s red line against political interference.

Parente had said he would not quit during the crisis. But rumors swirled about a possible exit after Parente, a turnaround expert, was named chairman of troubled poultry company BRF in April. </s> The president of Brazilian state oil company Petrobras has resigned after a crippling truckers' strike demanding sharp cuts to diesel prices.

The 9-day strike ended earlier this week when the government announced plans to subsidize the price of diesel for 60 days. The government went to great lengths to argue it would not interfere with Petrobras' ability to set fuel prices. But markets were not convinced.

Petrobras' stock price dropped sharply in the last two weeks.

In a statement Friday, Petrobras said Pedro Parente had resigned and that an interim CEO would be named. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters blamed Mr Parente for rising costs, after the company stopped subsidising fuel prices for domestic consumers

The head of Brazil's oil giant Petrobras, Pedro Parente, has resigned, following a nationwide strike by lorry drivers that caused huge disruption.

The strike against diesel prices, which ended this week, caused major shortages in the country.

Many of the protesters blamed Mr Parente for rising costs, after the company stopped subsidising fuel prices for its domestic consumers.

However, Petrobras gave no specific reason for the resignation.

In his resignation letter to President Michel Temer, Mr Parente said the strike challenged the pricing policy he had implemented.

Mr Parente said his role "as CEO had stopped being positive" and the government needed to consider "alternatives" to its pricing policy going forward, according to Reuters news agency.

Two years ago, former energy minister Mr Parente pegged the price of fuel in Brazil to international oil prices, which have since almost doubled.

After years of corruption scandals involving senior politicians and officials, his policy had helped Petrobras recover its market value.

The oil giant is controlled by the Brazilian government and is regarded as one of the world's biggest oil companies.

In January, the company agreed to pay almost $3bn (£2.18bn) to settle a class action suit in the United States, after investors said their holdings were damaged by a corruption scandal facing the firm.

Brazil's government had said it will not use Petrobras to subsidise fuel.

But the departure of Mr Parente has led to some speculation that Brazil may go back to its old fuel pricing policy of subsidies for those from low-income backgrounds.

Shares fell by more than 20% following his resignation on Friday.

Petrobras' paradox

By Daniel Gallas, BBC South America business correspondent

What can a country do against rising global oil prices? That's a question Brazil has been grappling with for about a decade.

From 2011 to 2016, Petrobras offered great subsidies to consumers, which helped keep Brazil's inflation down and secured job creation.

But it suffered huge losses that threatened the company's long-term prospects.

Then in 2016 came Pedro Parente and the company took a U-turn. All subsidies were lifted and fuel costs began to oscillate according to global prices.

Its financial credibility was restored but diesel consumers - particularly lorry drivers - felt a shock when global oil prices shot up.

Mr Parente's resignation suggests some form of government intervention in prices will come.

But few investors will be pleased with the idea of purchasing shares in a company that is focused on tackling inflation and unemployment, rather than just producing oil. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s chief executive quit on Friday in a surprise move that wiped $12 billion off the state-controlled oil producer’s market valuation, after Brazil’s government responded to a national trucking strike by intervening in the company’s fuel pricing policy.

Pedro Parente, who in two years in the job had succeeded in slashing the scandal-plagued company’s debt and restoring it to profitability, said in a resignation letter to President Michel Temer it was clear after the last week’s turmoil that new talks would be needed on pricing policy.

“Given this situation, it has become clear that my remaining as CEO of Petrobras has stopped being positive and will not contribute to the alternatives that the government must consider going forward,” Parente said in the letter.

His resignation appeared to have taken Temer’s already beleaguered government by surprise. A senior presidential source told Reuters on Thursday no such move was expected.

Petrobras said in a statement the board would choose an interim CEO on Friday and other top executives would remain. A company source said the board would meet at 4 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Parente urged Temer to adhere to the company’s corporate governance rules in naming a successor, which would bar any political appointees for the post.

Petrobras shares were down 13 percent in early afternoon trading, pulling Brazil’s wider Bovespa index into negative territory. The real currency weakened as much as 1 percent against the dollar.

The drop in Petrobras shares wiped some 45 billion reais ($12 billion) from the company’s capitalization, according to Reuters’ calculations.

Petrobras, one of the most widely held emerging market stocks, was at the epicenter of a bribery and graft scandal involving some of its key suppliers that began to roil Brazil’s political and business worlds four years ago.

Brazil’s former left-wing government also used the company to subsidize fuel prices, helping drive it heavily into debt.

A key plank of Parente’s turnaround campaign for the company and a condition for his taking the top job in 2016 was freedom to control fuel prices. He sought to align those more closely with international markets through nearly daily price adjustments.

But on Sunday Temer, governing with rock-bottom approval ratings, announced plans to placate the striking truck drivers - who were protesting the high cost of diesel - by freezing fuel prices on a monthly basis and taking other measures to bring domestic diesel prices down.

Truckers have gradually returned to work since then after a protest that left gas stations and some airports without fuel and supermarket shelves bare. The government on Friday threatened to prosecute those calling for a new strike.

“The policy (Parente) put in place was the scapegoat of this whole crisis,” said Roberto Castello Branco, a former Petrobras board member, arguing that Temer’s weakened government must have asked Parente for changes he could not accept. “The pressure on him was enormous.”

“For the country, for the company, a great source of uncertainty has opened that is very dangerous,” he added.

Although Temer promised the government would compensate Petrobras for any losses incurred by its intervention on fuel prices, the move may have crossed Parente’s red line against political interference.

Parente had said he would not quit during the crisis. But rumors swirled about a possible exit after Parente, a turnaround expert, was named chairman of troubled poultry company BRF in April. </s> Workers pedal their bicycles past a banner with a message that reads in Portuguese: "Get out Parente", in reference to Pedro Parente, the president of the state-owned oil company, at the entrance of a Petrobras refinery during a strike in Duque da Caxias, Brazil, Wednesday, May 30, 2018. Brazilian oil workers began a 3-day strike to demand a drop in the price of cooking gas. less </s> President of Brazilian state oil company Petrobras resigns after truckers' strike demanding cuts to diesel prices . </s> SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s solicitor general’s office and state-led oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they were asking the country’s top labor court for an injunction to halt a planned oil workers’ strike.

Unions representing oil workers say they will start a 72-hour strike on Wednesday. That would wreak further havoc on Latin America’s largest economy, already paralyzed by a nine-day nationwide truckers’ strike against an increase in diesel prices.

In a written statement, the solicitor general’s office said the planned oil workers’ strike was “political” and not labor-related, as workers were demanding the resignation of Petrobras chief executive officer Pedro Parente. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Brazilian oil workers have begun a 72-hour strike on the heels of a crippling nationwide truck drivers' strike that has started winding down after 10 days.

The country's two main oil workers' unions say the strike was called to demand lower fuel prices and the resignation of Pedro Parente, president of state-owned oil company Petrobras.

The strike began Wednesday in defiance of Brazil's top labor court, which declared it illegal and said the unions will have to pay a daily fine of 500,000 reals (about $135,000).

According to the Oil Worker's Federation, the strike has halted production at refineries in six states.

Petrobras said in a statement that contingency teams were operating production units where the strike prevented shift changes from taking place.

Workers pedal their bicycles past a banner with a message that reads in Portuguese: "Get out Parente", in reference to Pedro Parente, the president of the state-owned oil company, at the entrance of a Petrobras refinery during a strike in Duque da Caxias, Brazil, Wednesday, May 30, 2018. Brazilian oil workers began a 3-day strike to demand a drop in the price of cooking gas. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Pedro Parente, the head of Brazil Petrobras, resigns among protests related to diesel fuel prices.