The CEO of the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, Jean-Paul Prats, said that Brazil is expected to join the “OPEC plus” alliance of oil-producing countries in January but will not participate in the coordinated production caps of the group.
The South American country on Thursday raised immediate questions about whether Brazil will participate in the production cap, at a time when the “OPEC plus” countries have agreed to voluntary cuts approaching two million barrels per day early next year.
Jean-Paul Prats said in an interview on “Reuters”: “there is no quota. We will never be part of an organization that imposes (production) quotas on Brazil, Petrobras is a publicly traded company and we can’t get quotas,”he said.
The Brazilian energy minister said on Thursday that the country is eager to join “OPEC plus” after a full technical analysis. The Office of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva confirmed he had received the invitation but said he had not received an official reply.
Brazil is the largest oil producer in South America, with 4.6 million barrels per day of oil and gas, of which 3.7 million barrels per day of crude oil.
Prats, who in October received OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais in Brazil, noted that”OPEC Plus” was a group of countries that did not have voting rights and did not impose production caps on them, which would be the case in the case of Brazil.
He welcomed Brazil’s move to join the group.
“Brazil will start participating in the meetings as a kind of observer member, which I think is really cool,” Prats said, adding that this step will be key to OPEC and Brazil’s efforts in the energy transition.
