Brazil still has no plans to join OPEC, says minister in Abu Dhabi

Brazil has no plans to join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for the time being, although it is working with the group, said the minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, on Wednesday.

President Jair Bolsonaro said in 2019 that he wanted his country to join OPEC, a move that would likely require Brazil, a growing producer and the seventh-largest in the world based on 2020 figures, to limit oil production.

“At the moment there are no plans to join OPEC. We continue to work cooperatively with OPEC,” the minister told reporters in Abu Dhabi during an energy conference, speaking through a translator.

OPEC groups the largest exporter, Saudi Arabia, and 12 other countries, including the United Arab Emirates. Since 2017, OPEC has had an agreement with non-member producers, except Brazil, in a grouping known as OPEC+ to limit supply and support the market.

“We continue to hold meetings with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” said the minister. “We understand that we have to have a good relationship with OPEC and OPEC+.”

Brazil was the world’s seventh largest oil producer in 2020, according to data from the US government’s Energy Information Administration, pumping 3.79 million barrels a day.

If he joined OPEC, he would become the group’s third-largest producer, founded in 1960, and the most significant new member in years.

Oil prices jumped in 2021 to a three-year high above $86 a barrel as OPEC+ eases supply constraints put in place at the height of the pandemic and global demand recovers.

Asked whether prices were too high and whether OPEC+ was to blame, the minister said that Brazil and OPEC have similar challenges and that aggregate oil prices were having an economic impact.

“We consider that oil and gas prices are high and have an impact on the Brazilian economy. We also understand that this is a consequence of the recovery of the world economy”, he said.

In January 2020, the energy minister said that Brazil would start discussions about joining OPEC later that year, but an OPEC source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that the issue had been “very quiet” . (Reporting by Alex Lawler; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Jan Harvey and Barbara Lewis)