The largest private Brazilian refinery, the Mataripe Refinery, increased its gasoline and diesel sales prices this Saturday (15th). It was the second increase after the production cut by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), which put pressure on international quotations.
The main refiner in the country, Petrobras has been holding transfers, although the lags have remained at high levels since the beginning of the month. Sources in the company’s top management report pressure from the government to avoid negative news until the end of the election.
Controlled by the Arab fund Mubadala, the Mataripe Refinery raised the price of gasoline by 2%. That of the diesel-S10 has been increased by 8.9%. The previous Saturday, the company had already raised prices by 9.7% and 11.3%, respectively.
Acelen, Mubadala’s company that manages the refinery says that the readjustments reflect “the prices of market variables related to diesel and gasoline, which remained at high levels in the international market, due to the drop in inventories in the world”.
“The company has a transparent pricing policy, supported by technical criteria, in line with international market practices,” said the company in a statement. The Mataripe refinery accounts for 14% of Brazil’s fuel production capacity.
Petrobras also says it follows international quotations, but argues that it does not pass on to the consumer ‘punctual volatility’ in prices. For specialists, however, the production cut in OPEC has already raised oil prices to a new level.
According to Abicom (Brazilian Association of Fuel Importers), the gap between the average price of gasoline in Brazilian refineries and the import parity was 8%, or R$ 0.30 per liter, at the opening of the market this Monday. thursday (17).
In the case of diesel, the lag was 12%, which means that the average Brazilian price was R$ 0.70 per liter below the import parity, a concept that simulates how much it would cost to import the product from the closest suppliers.
On Friday (14), the director of Exploration and Production at Petrobras, Fernando Borges, argued that Petrobras benefits society by insuring readjustments at times of escalation in international oil prices.
“If we spend more often the reduction and take a little longer to pass the rise, we are benefiting Brazilian society”, said the executive, in a live from the epbr agency.
The drop in fuel prices was one of the strengths of the campaign for the reelection of President Jair Bolsonaro during the first round. In this second round, without further cuts in the refineries, prices begin to stabilize at the gas stations.
Last week, the average price of gasoline dropped just 0.4% at gas stations. The price of diesel fell by 0.6%. The data shows a slowdown after 14 weeks of sharp declines in response to federal and state tax cuts and price cuts at refineries.
The ANP (Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gas e BiocombustÃveis) will only publish the survey for the past week on Monday, as it normally does in weeks with public holidays.
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