Brazilian oil sector looks beyond the crisis

摘要

Brazil's oil industry has weathered the Covid-19 market fallout much better than its regional and international peers, but the non-Opec producer's ofshore development depends heavily on the course of Chinese demand and domestic regulatory changes. Brazil has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with a death count and caseload second only to the US. It initially took a piecemeal approach to address-ing Covid-19, with many states individually adopting movement restrictions while President Jair Bolsonaro downplayed the virus he eventually contracted himself. State-controlled Petrobras' domestic fuel production took a major hit follow-ing states' adoption of social-distancing measures in mid-March, which helped cut refnery utilisation to around 50pc. But crude output from it and other producers has proven resilient, with Brazilian production hitting a record 3.168mn b/d before the virus began to weigh on demand in China — the top export destination for Brazilian crude — at the start of this year. Output is now around 3mn b/d.