It appears that Brazil is somewhat immune to the contagion effects of the coronavirus pandemic, weak oil prices and increasing geopolitical uncertainty. These external factors have shown very little impact on the Latin giant’s oil sector.
By September, Brazil became the third largest supplier of crude oil to China. The Chinese economy is the second largest in the world. It is reported that Brazil’s oil boom despite the protracted pandemic is strengthened by the pre-salt Tupi oilfield. In the third quarter of the year, the sector reached a milestone of two billion barrels of oil output per day.
Oil giant Petrobras is spearheading the pre-salt Tupi oilfield’s development. The fields have recorded crude oil exports of 87 percent bound to China, a local media reported. Petrobras is a dominant player in the market and is responsible for propelling the region’s oil production.
The company is investing efforts to foray into Asian markets where there is an increasing demand for light sweet grades of crude oil. With that, India is reported to become a key market for the country because of the greater requirement for higher quality low sulfur content gasoline, diesel and maritime fuels.
For Brazil, maritime regulations have propelled demand in medium sweet crude oil from Singapore. The city-state is a shipping hub in Southeast Asia. Experts believe that sweet medium crude oil pumped in Brazil will continue to expand in the coming years. Currently, Petrobras is responsible for 60 percent of the country’s pre-salt oil production and is boosting activity at its pre-salt assets.