Rio de Janeiro, March 2, 2016 – Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras hereby responds to Official Letter 559/2016-SAE which requests the following clarifications:

Official Letter 559/2016-SAE

“Dear Sirs,

A news item published in the March 2, 2016 edition of the newspaper Valor Econômico states that Petrobras lost the discussion involving R$7.3 billion in the Higher Chamber of Tax Appeals.

We did not identify this information in the documents sent by this company via the Empresas.NET System. If we are mistaken, please indicate the document and the pages containing the information in question and the date and time when they were sent..

We therefore request that you provide us with clarification on the above item by 9:00 a.m. on March 3, 2016, without prejudice to the sole paragraph of article 6 of CVM Instruction 358/02, confirming its veracity or not, together with any other information deemed important

Clarification

Higher Chamber of Tax Appeals (CARF) rendered its judgment of two administrative tax processes related to the charging of corporate income tax (IRPJ) and social contribution on net income (CSLL), whose updated amounts total R$5.9 billion.

These processes arise from the belief of the tax inspectors that the transfer of funds from Petrobras to its Petros pension plan and to the incentive paid to retirees for adherence to the new plan are not deductible from the IRPJ and CSLL calculation base. Petrobras, in turn, believes that such expenses are necessary to the Company’s activities and are therefore deductible.

In both cases, the Higher Chamber refused to proceed with the Special Appeals filed by Petrobras, without evaluating their merits. As a result, Petrobras is awaiting publication of the Higher Chamber of Tax Appeals’ decision to evaluate its next applicable legal steps.

In item 29 of the explanatory notes to its financial statements for the third quarter of 2015, Petrobras disclosed information on the processes related to this material, which represented the total amount of approximately R$7 billion, including those judged yesterday by the CARF.

Any facts deemed relevant regarding this matter will be disclosed to the market in a timely manner.