BRASILIA (Dispatches) - Brazil’s oil industry has absolutely exploded in recent years, and now the Latin American country could even be on track to becoming a global top 5 producer.
In a little over a decade Latin America’s largest economy Brazil has become a leading global oil producer. At the end of 2020, Brazil was not only pumping the most oil in Latin America, an average of 3.03 million barrels daily, but finished ranked as the world’s seventh largest producer behind OPEC member Iraq and ahead of the United Arab Emirates. According to Brazil’s Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque, Latin America’s top oil producer will become the world’s fifth-largest petroleum exporter by the end of this decade.
Brazil’s government is forecasting that the country will be pumping 5.3 million barrels of oil per day by 2030 facilitating its ability to substantially boost exports. That is compared to an average of 3.05 million barrels of crude oil and condensate production per day for July 2021 and an average of 2.94 million for the first seven months of 2021. This indicates that there is still considerable work to be completed if Brazil is to achieve such an ambitious target.
Despite ructions, earlier this year sparked by President Bolsonaro’s dismissal of Petrobras CEO Roberto Castello Branco who was replaced by former Defense Minister Joaquim Silva e Luna, production continues to grow.