Neoenergia/Coelba does a “disservice to the people of Bahia”, criticizes president of CBPM

The president of the Bahia Mineral Research Company (CBPM), Henrique Carballal, criticized Neoenergia Coelba, a private energy distribution company that operates in Bahia. In an interview with the Podcast Projeto Prisma, from Bahia Notícias, Carballal classified the company’s service as a “disservice to the people of Bahia”. He also criticized the lack of quality of the state’s railway network, which also affects the economy of Bahia – and the country.

“Coelba does a disservice to the people of Bahia. What decision the governor will make, I don’t know. But Coelba does not respect our people, does not make necessary investments and delays the development of the State of Bahia”, pointed out Carballal, highlighting that the supply of electricity in the interior is precarious.

“Remember I told you about the São Félix do Coribe limestone mine? Coelba was charging R$46 million reais to bring energy to the factory. I don’t know if R$46 million is equivalent to the total investment value for the project. In other words, you make economic activities unfeasible when you don’t have a concessionaire that doesn’t guarantee supply.”

“They (Coelba) are close to 101 (BR-101), that is, they have transmission lines passing there, so it is not possible to understand this type of behavior from this concessionaire”, he continued.

During the interview, which took place on Monday (29/04), Carballal mentioned mining ventures for Bahia, such as the Irecê Project for the production of phosphate concentrate, from the company Galvani/Fosnor, to break the sector’s dependence on the external market. and which require large energy consumption.

“This is a strategic initiative for the Bahian economy, and also for Brazil, due to the high dependence on imported phosphate”, he explained. “The investment is R$340 million with CBPM’s estimate of annual royalty income of around R$19.5 million,” he said.

The start of operations is scheduled for the end of 2025, with an estimated useful life of 15 years, whose mining rights are held by CBPM, responsible for developing phosphate rock production activities in Irecê. When effective production begins, Galvani will be able to provide around 25% of the phosphate fertilizers needed for agricultural use in the Northeast and North regions of the country, reducing dependence on imports of this input.

In addition to forecasting annual production of 1.2 million tons of ore, resulting in 350 thousand tons of phosphate concentrate, there are expectations of producing 600 thousand tons of agricultural limestone annually, which will be sold for soil recovery and to boost the agricultural sector regional. The project estimates the generation of 800 direct and indirect jobs, during the operation phase, and 1,000 jobs, during the construction period.

PRECARIOUS RAILWAY MESH

When criticizing the precariousness of Bahia’s railway network, especially the Centro-Atlântica Railway (FCA), which, like the electricity sector, affects the state’s economy, the president of CBPM said that whoever controls it is against the development of Bahia. “We have a deteriorating railway network. And her decline was not the result of incompetence. It was made exactly not to work,” he said. “Whoever controls this railway network today has no interest in the state of Bahia being able to produce and develop large-scale mining activities”, he assessed.

The railway is the main axis of integration between the Southeast, Northeast and Central-West regions, with around 7,220 kilometers in length that crosses more than 250 municipalities. However, there are several abandoned sections in Bahia, such as in the Port of Aratu region, in Candeias, in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador (RMS), which have had their locomotives idle for years.

Carballal raised the possibility of influence from Vale SA’s subsidiary, VLI Logística, which controls FCA, to prevent Bahia from expanding its mining activities. He also highlighted that it is essential to monitor mining activities to avoid tragedies such as those in Mariana and Brumadinho, both in MG.

“The governor is strict about complying with environmental standards. It is essential that this is achieved. What happened in Mariana and Brumadinho was a consequence of non-compliance with environmental legislation”, he analyzed. He also criticized the impunity for the two criminal tragedies.

The energy company has also been under pressure at the parliamentary level. The Legislative Assembly of Bahia (ALBA) created a subcommittee last year to demand that the company privatized in the 90s fulfill its contract with the State government. “It is a factory that makes money and profits for its shareholders and provides poor service,” said state deputy Robinson Almeida (PT).

“We held a public hearing this year (2024), with the president of Neoenergia, which is the group that controls [a Coelba]. There were 25 deputies there, representing different regions of Bahia and Coelba did not receive a single compliment”, he stated. “So that day it became clear that the three years left until the end of the concession contract could be the most painful of what we have been experiencing in these 27”, continued the parliamentarian.

The deputy denounced that, despite pressure from Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT), there are schools in the state that have been waiting for Coelba to have their power connected for three years, but it has not done so because it does not have the structure to serve the units that have expanded their set of equipment to operate full time.

Coelba is also in the Executive’s sights. Last March, Jerônimo Rodrigues announced that there is a possibility that the State will not renew the electricity distribution concession with the company. According to him, the contract for several states expires in 2026, including Bahia. “In the same way as I do with Coelba internally, I call Embasa (Empresa Bahiana de Águas e Saneamento) and do it, there is no problem for me, this is my place”, said the governor.