Petrobras reduces natural gas prices by 2% for distributors

Petrobras announced that it reduced the price of a natural gas molecule for distributors by 2% on average as of this Thursday (1st). The value is applied on top of the value in Reais per cubic meter in relation to the month of January 2024.

According to the company, contracts with distributors provide for “quarterly updates of the portion of the price related to the gas molecule” and link this variation to fluctuations in Brent oil and the exchange rate between the Real and the Dollar. For the quarter starting in February 2024, the oil reference fell 3.6% and the exchange rate depreciated by 1.5%.

“Customers with contracts in force in 2023 saw an accumulated reduction of 22.2% in the price of the natural gas molecule throughout the year,” Petrobras cited in the statement.

The company also stated that new modalities of contracts for products offered to distributors came into force this year, with the possibility of contracting for periods of 5 years, 7 years, 9 years and 11 years, in addition to the choice “regarding the inclusion or not the outgoing transport in the contracts”.

Petrobras highlighted that the final price of natural gas to the consumer is not only determined by the company’s sales price of the molecule, but also by the cost of transportation to the distributor, the supply portfolio of each distributor, margins and federal and state taxes.

Reduction on one side, increase on the other

On the other hand, fuels such as gasoline, diesel and cooking gas rose in price this Thursday (1st) with the entry into force of the new ICMS rates approved by state governments in October 2023.

The ICMS on gasoline has an increase of R$0.15 per liter, raising the rate to R$1.37. Considering the price survey by the National Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP), the average price of gasoline in the country will rise from R$5.56 to R$5.71 per liter.

In the case of diesel, the increase is R$0.12 per liter, reaching R$1.06. This increase puts the price of S-10 diesel back above R$6 per liter, after a spike at the beginning of the year with the resumption of federal tax collection.

The cooking gas tax rate was set at R$1.41 per kilogram, representing an increase of R$0.16 in relation to the current value. As a result, a 13-kilo cylinder, on average, will go from R$100.98 to R$103.6, making it difficult for the government to achieve its goal of keeping this price below R$100.

This change in ICMS rates is the first after the change in the tax collection model, which is now in reais per liter, no longer as a percentage of the estimated pump price of the products. The intensity of the increase has been criticized by the sector.