Brazil to begin OPEC membership discussions

Brazil will start discussions on joining OPEC when its energy minister Bento Albuquerque visits Saudi Arabia in July, newswires report. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro first raised the prospect of joining OPEC in October but it was met with skepticism from Brazil’s energy industry.

Brazil is one of the fastest growing non-OPEC crude producers. Brazilian crude exports were a record 2.06M b/d in December according to data from the Brazil Trade Ministry. The country aims to export 1.4M b/d of oil in 2020, an increase of 300K b/d on 2019.

Bento Albuquerque also stated that Brazil’s membership in OPEC would not happen this year.