Brazil should accept OPEC invitation but without production quota, says Prates

Brazil must accept the invitation to join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Allies (OPEC+) but without participating in the production quota system, according to Petrobras president Jean Paul Prates. The country, according to him, should join the group with a role of cooperation and observation of decisions.

OPEC+ is a kind of “extended version” of OPEC, the oil exporters’ cartel.

“They call other countries that do not have the right to vote and quotas are not imposed on these countries. We would never participate in an entity that established a quota for Brazil, especially with the support of Petrobras, which is an open company on the market and cannot have a quota”, said Prates, according to Reuters.

Brazil, one of the ten largest oil exporters in the world, received an invitation to become an ally of OPEC. The proposal is being analyzed by minister Alexandre Silveira, informed the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Despite Prates’ position and Silveira’s analysis, the final decision belongs to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The invitation took place during a visit by the Brazilian delegation, with the presence of the president and the minister, to the Middle East for the Climate Summit (COP 28), in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

OPEC was created in 1960, in Iraq, to ​​establish a common policy regarding the production and sale of oil.

The acronym “Opec+” was created from the inclusion in the group of “allied countries”. They are not formally part of the organization, but participate in debates related to the oil trade. Allies include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Malaysia, Mexico and Russia.