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Brazil’s crude exports surge in July: Correction

10 Aug 2020 14:52 (+01:00 GMT)
Brazil's crude exports surge in July: Correction

Corrects tons to b/d conversion in first sentence.

Rio de Janeiro, 10 August (Argus) — Crude exports from Brazil surged to 8.19mn t (1.94mn b/d) in July, up from 5.55mn t in June and more than double the 3.77mn t dispatched a year earlier, according to preliminary data from Brazil's trade ministry.

China's share of receipts dropped to around 73pc compared with 88pc in June. European countries including Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands increased their shares, as did the US, when compared with June.

Last week, executives from state-controlled Petrobras, Brazil's top oil producer, said Chinese demand for pre-salt crude remains strong, but the country's light sweet grades are also appealing in other countries, despite dimmer market conditions since March.

Independent Chinese refiners, Petrobras' most important buyers in Asia, have helped to drive up production at the company's biggest pre-salt deposits such as Buzios, which produced a record 615,000 b/d in July, the company said earlier this week.

Petrobras continues to monitor market trends in balancing crude exports with domestic fuel production. Utilization rates at the company's refineries touched 80pc over the weekend, just above the 79pc first quarter average.

Brazil produced around 3mn b/d of oil in June, the highest since March, and output in July likely inched higher as Petrobras concluded some preliminary maintenance. More extensive turnarounds planned between September and November could shave around 200,000 b/d from the firm's output, which represents around 74pc of the country's total.

Oil production at the company's more cost-resilient deepwater assets has remained stable in recent months, but the firm is pulling back on less economically viable shallow-water projects.

Petrobras said today it is mothballing a production platform at the 3,600 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) Merluza field. The closing of the mature Santos basin asset, part of the company's deepwater-focused divestment portfolio, is the 63rd shallow-water unit to be shut in response to lower crude prices.