ANP approves increase in minimum stock of S-10 diesel for nine days

The board of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) approved the holding of a consultation and public hearing to discuss the proposal that foresees to increase the minimum stock of S-10 diesel in Brazil to nine days.

So far, this period is three to five days. To avoid a risk of shortages, producers and distributors must maintain reserves that serve to cover a possible deficit in imports.

After the discussions, if approved, the measure will be published in the Federal Official Gazette. The resolution shall be effective from September 1 to November 30, 2022.

According to data presented at the meeting of the collegiate board, the ANP estimate is that Brazil’s demand for fuel in the second half of this year will be 104,700 m³ per day. However, domestic production is only 67,700 m³ per day, so imports will have to be at least 37,000 m³ per day.

Taking into account a daily demand of 104,700 m³ of S-10 diesel, the agency understood that the ideal stock needed should be at least 1,650,000 m³.

Being 50% the responsibility of the producers and 50% of the distributors, who have had a participation above 8% in the commercialization of the fuel in the national market in the second half of 2021.

In May, former Petrobras president José Mauro Ferreira Coelho had sent a letter to the ANP warning of the “high risk of diesel shortages in the Brazilian market in the second half of 2022”.

Also during the meeting held this Thursday (30), the rapporteur director of the proposal, Symone Araujo, pointed out two main reasons for changing the resolution: an increase in the demand for S-10 diesel in the country in the second half of the year, due to the harvests of crops that demand more from road freight; and the hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico, where Brazil imports most of its fuel, which could affect diesel production and impact global supply of the oil product.