Who Is Magda Chambriard, Petrobras’s CEO?

Who Is Magda Chambriard, Petrobras’s CEO?
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Last updated: November 9, 2026

Magda Maria de Regina Chambriard is the Chief Executive Officer of Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil and gas major, a post she has held since May 2024. A civil engineer by training, she spent more than two decades inside Petrobras before leading Brazil’s oil and gas regulator, the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), making her one of the few executives to have run both the country’s dominant oil company and its principal regulator.

Current Position

Chambriard was appointed to Petrobras’s Board of Directors and elected Chief Executive Officer by the board on May 24, 2024, taking office the same day without need for a shareholders’ meeting. She was nominated by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to replace Jean Paul Prates, who was removed from the role earlier that month. She is Petrobras’s sixth CEO in under three years and was re-elected to the board at the company’s Annual General Meeting on April 16, 2026.

Education

  • Civil Engineering degree, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), 1979
  • Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, COPPE/UFRJ, 1989
  • Specialist degree in Reservoir Engineering and Formation Evaluation
  • Specialization in Oil and Gas Production, Petrobras University
  • Additional executive training in risk management, accounting, leadership and board governance

Career Timeline

Year Organization Position
1980–2002 Petrobras Reservoir engineer, then exploration and block-definition superintendent, across the company’s Brazilian production areas
2002 ANP (oil and gas regulator) Technical adviser to the Exploration and Production department; later led implementation of ANP’s Multi-Year Geology and Geophysics Plan
2008 ANP Member of the agency’s Board of Directors
2012–2016 ANP Director-General — first woman to hold the post; oversaw technical studies behind Brazil’s first pre-salt bidding round
2016–2024 Independent / Alerj Oil and energy consultant; headed the tax advisory office of Rio de Janeiro’s state legislature (Alerj) from 2021
2024–present Petrobras Chief Executive Officer and Board member

Previous Companies and Agencies

Before returning to Petrobras as CEO, Chambriard’s career centered on two institutions: Petrobras itself, where she worked across reservoir engineering and exploration roles from 1980 to 2002, and ANP, Brazil’s oil and gas regulator, where she rose from technical adviser to Director-General between 2002 and 2016. Between leaving ANP and her 2024 Petrobras appointment, she worked as an independent energy consultant and in a state-government tax advisory role in Rio de Janeiro.

Major Energy Projects

As CEO, Chambriard has overseen a period of record output at Petrobras’s pre-salt fields, including the 2026 startup of the Búzios P-79 and P-78 units, the board’s approval of Petrobras’s $109 billion 2026–2030 business plan (announced November 27, 2025), and continued exploration drilling on Brazil’s Equatorial Margin, including the Foz do Amazonas license Brazilian regulator IBAMA amended in September 2026 following Petrobras’s Morpho discovery. See TDE’s Petrobras company profile for the full project list.

Board Memberships

Chambriard sits on Petrobras’s Board of Directors as part of her CEO role, having been appointed to the board on May 24, 2024 and re-elected at the April 16, 2026 shareholders’ meeting. No other current corporate board memberships are documented in the primary sources reviewed for this profile.

Current Responsibilities

Chambriard leads Petrobras’s executive board and reports to a Board of Directors chaired, as of April 2026, by Guilherme Santos Mello. She is responsible for executing the company’s 2026–2030 business plan, including pre-salt production growth, the Equatorial Margin exploration campaign, and balancing Brazilian government priorities — such as expanding refining and fertilizer output — against shareholder return commitments.

Net Worth

No reliable public estimate of Magda Chambriard’s personal net worth is available from Forbes, Bloomberg or comparable sources. As the executive of a majority state-owned company, her disclosed compensation is set through Petrobras’s shareholder-approved executive remuneration pool rather than equity ownership.

Latest News

Chambriard’s tenure has centered on Petrobras’s pre-salt expansion and the politically sensitive push into Equatorial Margin drilling near the Amazon; see TDE’s coverage of Petrobras’s second oil discovery at Amapá’s Morpho well for the exploration campaign she has overseen.

  • Petrobras — the company Chambriard leads as CEO
  • Claudio Descalzi — CEO of fellow state-linked major Eni
  • Anders Opedal — CEO of fellow state-linked major Equinor
  • Equinor — comparable government-controlled national oil company
  • ADNOC — comparable Gulf national oil company

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Petrobras’s CEO?

Magda Chambriard has been Petrobras’s Chief Executive Officer since May 24, 2024, when Petrobras’s Board of Directors elected her and appointed her to the board on the same day.

What was Magda Chambriard’s role before Petrobras CEO?

She spent 1980 to 2002 at Petrobras in reservoir engineering and exploration roles, then moved to Brazil’s oil and gas regulator ANP, where she served as Director-General from 2012 to 2016 — the first woman to hold that post.

Who appointed Magda Chambriard to lead Petrobras?

Petrobras’s Board of Directors elected her CEO on May 24, 2024, following a nomination from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had removed her predecessor, Jean Paul Prates, earlier that month.

Sources

Illustrative image. Photo: Arquivo ABr, CC BY 3.0 br, via Wikimedia Commons — source

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