Brazil's Finance Minister sees no reason to worry about Petrobras

(Reuters) - Brazil's Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said there is no reason to worry about state oil major Petrobras after a recent leadership change that caused the company's shares to plummet.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde published on Wednesday, Haddad said the appointment last week of Magda Chambriard as the company's CEO was due to a deteriorating relationship between the previous head, Jean Paul Prates, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

"The CEO of Petrobras has practically the rank of a minister in Brazil, and a good relationship with the head of state is essential," he said, according to the newspaper.

"There is no need to worry about Petrobras, no radical changes are planned, and the company should execute its investment plan."

Regarding the possibility of Petrobras exploring oil in the Amazon River mouth, a venture supported by the new CEO, Haddad said the project does not contradict leftist Lula's ecological plans to boost Brazilian growth.

"This project is not well understood," he said. "I don't see any contradiction here. First, because I don't believe that oil exploitation in this region will have environmental consequences. Second, the real ecological impact of oil, in my opinion, lies not in its exploitation but in its use."

The minister also said Brazil could aim for an average annual growth of 3% during the current presidential term, which runs until 2026.

Economic growth was 2.9% last year, the first year of Lula's third non-consecutive term. The Finance Ministry recently revised its projection for gross domestic product (GDP) expansion to 2.5% this year.

(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by David Holmes)