Brazil won’t cap its oil production despite joining OPEC+ group

Brazil, which is set to join the OPEC+ alliance in January, will not have any quota and will not participate in oil production cuts, Jean Paul Prates, the chief executive of Brazilian state-controlled oil giant Petrobras, told Reuters in an interview published on December 1.

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After the much-anticipated OPEC+ meeting on November 30, the group surprisingly announced that Brazil would join the alliance in 2024.

“The Meeting welcomed HE Alexandre Silveira de Oliveira, Minister of Mines and Energy of the Federative Republic of Brazil, which will join the OPEC+ Charter of Cooperation starting January 2024,” OPEC said after Thursday’s meeting, leaving observers guessing whether Brazil would be part of any voluntary cuts announced for 2024.

In an interview with Reuters, Petrobras’s CEO Prates said, “There is no quota.”

“We would never be part of an organization that imposes (production) quotas to Brazil, Petrobras is a publicly traded company, and we cannot have quotas,” the executive added.

Brazil has received the invite to join OPEC+ but President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has not formally responded yet, the office of the president said.

Brazil would begin its OPEC+ participation as some kind of an observer member, Prates told Reuters.

Brazil currently produces around 3.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, of which a large part is being pumped by Petrobras and its joint ventures. Brazilian oil and gas production has been breaking records this year as more platforms operated by Petrobras is coming online in the prolific offshore pre-salt fields.

Petrobras itself targets to boost its oil production this decade, up by 61% from 2.15 million bpd this year to 3.46 million bpd in 2030.

Last month, Petrobras said in its new strategic plan through 2028 that is aims to produce the equivalent of 3.2 million barrels of oil and gas per day in five years.