In the context of uncertainties on the world supply of crude, born with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brazil sent a message of appeasement to its American neighbor.
An oil installation in the state of Sao Paulo (Brazil in 2021. (AFP / NELSON ALMEIDA)
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The Brazilian government has assured its US counterpart that it will increase oil production, the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy said on Monday (March 14th), a decision that could help allay concerns related to the global supply of crude oil.
The Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, responded last Thursday to a request from his American counterpart, Jennifer Granholm, who had told him by videoconference of the importance of a possible increase in production from the Brazil.
Mrs (Granholm) “asked me if Brazil could be part of this effort (produce more oil, editor’s note), and I said ‘of course it can’.
We are already increasing our production, while the majority of OECD countries have reduced it
. We have increased our production over the past three years,” Albuquerque said in a message sent by his ministry to AFP on Monday.
An unknown increase
During the conversation, the American official pointed out to Jair Bolsonaro’s minister the efforts made by other countries to try to avoid further volatility in the price of a barrel of oil, we learned from the same source.
The Brazilian minister did not specify how much he intended to increase national production.
Latin America’s largest economy is among the ten largest oil producers in the world
with about 3 million barrels per day or so.
After hitting a price of nearly $140 on March 7, near an all-time high, Brent crude closed lower at $106.90 on Monday as the market watched for any diplomatic breakthrough in the Ukraine dispute. Crude oil, however, has risen 36% since the start of the year.
Joe Biden’s administration is looking for ways to ease the pressure on oil prices caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and then the war unleashed by major oil producer Russia against Ukraine.
On March 8, the US President announced a complete and immediate ban on oil, natural gas and coal imports from Russia as punishment for his invasion of Ukraine.
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