Brazil’s Lula Cleans House at Petrobras, Firing Its CEO and CFO

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva shook up the leadership of the nation’s state-owned oil company, firing the chief executive officer and one of his top deputies after months of sparring.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA CEO Jean Paul Prates, who had fought with the president over dividend payments, was formally dismissed at a board meeting Wednesday. The company’s chief financial officer, Sergio Caetano Leite, was also terminated.

Lula, as the president is known, plans to nominate Magda Chambriard, the former head of Brazil’s oil and gas regulator, to replace Prates. Clarice Coppetti, the executive director of ...