The average lag in the price of diesel in the domestic market increased from 18% to 25% between Monday (25) and Tuesday (26), informs the Brazilian Association of Fuel Importers (Abicom), making imports of the fuel by medium and small companies in the sector.
According to Abicom, in addition to the high exchange rate, which operates at a high level, putting pressure on domestic prices of imported products, the tight supply of the product continues to pressure future prices. Brent futures are currently trading around $106 a barrel.
Brazil imported 25% of all the diesel it consumes in 2021 and the prospects are to repeat the volume this year, due to the limitation of the refining park.
According to the partner of Leggio Consultoria, Marcus D’Ellia, in a live on Tuesday night at the epbr agency about the downstream In Brazil, there is great concern about the diesel deficit in the country, while gasoline continues to lag behind the international market, and is not at risk of shortages like diesel.
“When you look at the diesel cycle, this is the big concern. 25% of demand is an important gap and there is no investment in the country to fill this deficit. It is very difficult to justify investments in a fuel that has an expiration date”, evaluated D’Ellia, referring to the energy transition that foresees the reduction of oil consumption in the coming years.
“When we look at Brazil, the demand for gasoline starts to fall in 2038, but diesel has a longer horizon, and, 2040. In other words, you will have a growing demand until 2040”, he informed.
Despite the agreement between Petrobras and the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) to break the refining monopoly, in exchange for the suspension of proceedings against the state-owned company, only one refinery was sold, in Bahia, renamed the Mataripe Refinery, controlled by Acelen, arm of the Arab investment fund Mubadala.
The lag in fuel prices in the Brazilian market is one of the factors that have prevented the sale of refineries. The last increase granted for diesel by Petrobras was on March 11, 24.9%. On the same day, gasoline was adjusted by 18.7%.
Since taking over the Bahia refinery, Acelen has made almost weekly price readjustments and the lag measured at the port of Aratu is smaller than the average for the country.
While in Petrobras’ reference ports the lag reaches 27% (Itaqui and Suape), in Bahia it is 17%. The company is investing R$ 500 million to modernize and expand the unit’s production.
Source: CNN Brasil
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