By Samantha Pearson

SÃO PAULO--Latin America's biggest oil producer Petrobras announced the exit of its chief executive Jean Paul Prates late Tuesday, the fifth head of the company to be fired or quit in three years as the government battles for greater control over the group.

Magda Chambriard, a former government regulator, will replace Prates, according to a statement from Petrobras, citing a decision by the country's Ministry of Mines and Energy. Shares in the company plunged more than 8% Wednesday.

As a state-controlled company that relies on cash from its private-sector investors, Petrobras has long found itself torn between the demands of its shareholders and those of the Brazilian government as it struggles to tap vast deepwater oil deposits.

Since taking over at the beginning of last year, Prates has repeatedly clashed with the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his leftist Workers' Party by resisting pressure to lower oil prices, and more recently over dividend payments.

Between 2011 and 2016, during the Workers' Party's last stint in government, Petrobras lost some $30 billion after the government forced the company to fund gasoline and diesel subsidies to fight inflation. By 2015, Petrobras had become the most indebted oil major in the world, owing $130 billion to creditors.

The company also was at the center of the country's largest corruption scandal, the Car Wash investigation, that erupted in 2014 and ensnared dozens of top businessmen and politicians, landing da Silva himself in jail for more than a year and half.

While governance changes following that investigation have made it harder for the government to meddle in the company's daily management, soaring energy prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine have renewed tensions.

Write to Samantha Pearson at samantha.pearson@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-15-24 1058ET