Import of Russian diesel by Brazil breaks record

Amid soaring oil prices on the international market, the pressure on the price of diesel in Brazil is only greater due to the increase in imports of Russian fuel, driven by discounts offered by producers in Vladimir Putin’s country in light of the ban on purchases by European Union countries.

From being irrelevant until the end of last year, the Russian derivative reached a record level of 74.5% of all diesel imported into the Brazilian market in the month of August. But, as diesel produced in Russia has also been following the rise in international prices, there is pressure on prices in Brazil anyway.

According to calculations by Argus consultancy, the gap between Brazilian diesel and diesel imported from Russia reached 9.8% last Friday (8), while the difference for non-Russian diesel imports was 15.1%.

“As Petrobras cannot supply everything consumed in Brazil, you basically have two diesel markets”, comments Amance Boutin, fuel market specialist at Argus. “The main one is that supplied by Petrobras, from which all distributors will try to extract as much as they can,” he says.

“The rest comes from the secondary market, called marginal barrels, which is what needs to be purchased to complete Petrobras’ offer. This product is more expensive, but coming from Russia there is a smaller delay”, he adds.