Rio Court Rejects Refit’s Bid to Release Seized Fuel, Sends Dispute to Federal Judiciary

Overview

• Judge Arthur Eduardo Magalhães Ferreira of the 5th Business Court denied Refit’s request to move roughly 87 million liters of retained cargoes and ruled that challenges to ANP’s actions must be filed in federal court.
• The decision leaves in place ANP’s September 26 interdiction of the Manguinhos unit after joint operations with Receita Federal and the Navy targeting suspected import misclassification.
• A separate petition by Rio de Janeiro’s state government to reopen the plant was also denied, despite claims of an estimated R$50 million per month in lost state revenue and R$1 billion tied to the company’s recovery plan.
• ANP issued a technical rebuttal to the company-commissioned report, maintaining that the seized product is crude/condensate destined for formulation and that Refit’s facilities cannot reach required octane through refining.
• Refit, in court-supervised reorganization, says the material is condensate, defends its classifications as transparent, and plans further legal action while federal authorities continue analyses and administrative proceedings.