Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 09 2020

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Gaspetro is a holding company that owns stakes in a total of 19 firms operating in Brazil’s natural gas distribution business. The states where Gas- petro is present account for around 40% of gas demand in the South American country.
In 2019, Gaspetro distributed a total of 29mn cubic metres per day of gas, using a network that includes more than 10,000 km of pipelines. Petrobras owns 51% of shares in Gaspetro, while a local subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsui, Mitsui Gás e Energia do Brasil, has the remaining 49%.
Meanwhile, the Merluza and Lagosta oil- fields are both located in a shallow-water sec- tion of the Santos Basin, Brazil’s largest offshore sedimentary basin in Brazil. Together, the two fields yielded an average of 3,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2019.
As with the sale of Gaspetro, Petrobras is looking to unload the two fields as part of a wider effort to optimise its portfolio and improve its capital allocation. The company has made similar arrangements for fields in another of the country’s largest basins, Campos; last year, it sold off the Pargo, Carapeba, Vermelho and Maromba sites.
Last December, Rio de Janeiro-based Petro- bras said it was planning to sell $20-30bn worth of assets, including eight Brazilian refineries, between 2020 and 2024. The firm has also indi- cated that it could add its Bolivian assets, its stake in the petrochemical firm Braskem, vari- ous legacy deepwater oilfields and its remaining stake in fuel distribution firm BR Distribuidora to the divestment programme. ™
Brazil to raise cap on biodiesel content in motor fuel
BRAZIL’S National Agency of Petroleum, Nat- ural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) has announced plans to increase the maximum amount of bio- diesel blended with petroleum-derived diesel for retail sale to 15% over the next three years.
Currently, the diesel sold in Brazilian fill- ing stations contains up to 11% biodiesel. But ANP said in a statement on March 2 that it had instructed motor fuel producers to raise the cap on biodiesel content to 12%. The figure will then be boosted to 13% in March 2021, to 14% in March 2022 and to 15% in March 2023, the agency explained.
It also stressed, though, that the change would not require retail fuel sellers to get rid of existing stocks of diesel that did not meet the new standards. “The service stations that had diesel containing 11% biodiesel acquired before March 1 can continue to sell the product until stocks are exhausted,” it said.
ANP’s decision marks the second change in biodiesel mandates in less than a year. The agency changed the cap for biodiesel content levels from 10% to 11% on September 1, 2019. It did so six months behind schedule, as the Bra- zilian government needed extra time for engine testing of the recommended 15% maximum.
Officials in Brasilia are hoping that the uptick in the biodiesel mandate will complement Ren- ovaBio, an ongoing effort to reduce the coun- try’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The RenovaBio programme established a system of carbon credits and a market for the trading of these credits shortly after its founding in 2016. It has also provided support for the production of biodiesel and of sugar cane-derived ethanol.
Brazil is capable of producing more than
enough biodiesel to meet domestic demand. But its production facilities were operating at just 60% of capacity until 2017, when ANP started increasing the mandated share of bio- diesel. Brazilian industry organisations have said that domestic biodiesel production goes up by 600mn litres per year every time the figure rises by one percentage point.
Soybeans are the main source of biodiesel in Brazil, accounting for about 77% of total out- put. Animal fats make up another 17%, and raw materials such as used cooking oil comprise the remaining 6%. ™
Brazil’s biodiesel mandate began rising in 2017 (Photo: Curitiba Municipal Admin.)
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 09 05•March•2020