Nielmar de Oliveira           Reporter Agência Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – For the first time in years, Brazil’s state-run oil giant, Petrobras, is running a trade deficit. According to Paulo Roberto Costa, the director of Supply and Refining, in the first half of this year, due to a sharp rise in domestic demand for gasoline, the company will have a deficit of $1.1 billion in its international commerce segment.

“We have a red hot domestic market and the price of [Brazil’s sugarcane- based] ethanol is not attractive at the moment (in order to be economical, Brazilian ethanol has to be less than 70% of the price of gasoline). We are importing more light crude. The reason we import light crude is that it is cheaper to refine than our heavy crude petroleum, most of which we export,” explains Costa. “There is a 5% to 10% difference in supply and demand that will probably last until 2015. So, we also import gasoline and diesel to meet the needs of the domestic market.”

According to Costa, Brazil will import some 650,000 barrels of gasoline by the end of this month in order to replenish stockpiles. “It has to be borne in mind that it is 32 years since a refinery was built in Brazil. Consumption has risen during that period, dramatically, in fact, over the last two years. As ethanol is added to Brazilian gasoline, the amount of gasoline we have to import depends more and more on the size of the sugarcane harvest.”

Costa went on to say that there was no danger of a lack of gasoline in Brazil.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English – content modified

Link - Aumento no consumo de gasolina levará Petrobras a fechar 2011 com déficit em sua balança comercial