Brazil cuts natural gas imports to a 20-year low. The hydroelectric roars
Brazil's natural gas imports fell to a 20-year low last year, according to data from the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) .
Brazil's natural gas imports fell to 6.5 billion cubic meters, or 228 billion cubic feet, as the country's hydroelectric, solar and wind capacities strengthened, according to the PA.
These figures are equal to the amount of natural gas imported by Brazil in 2003 and compare with 9 billion cubic meters imported in 2022 and 16.9 billion cubic meters imported in 2021, data compiled by Reuters show.
The trend is clear: Brazil has imported increasingly smaller volumes of natural gas since 2015, with the exception of the peak in 2021, when a severe drought impacted its hydroelectric capabilities.
Although natural gas imports are decreasing, the national oil company, Petrobras, has budgeted $102 billion in investments for the period 2024-2028, a 31% increase compared to the plan for the period 2023-2027. Petrobras allocated $72 billion of this budget to exploration and production activities. The state oil company has already declared in the past that it wants to become the world's fourth largest oil producer by 2030.
Petrobras has been under pressure to increase natural gas production to reduce its price for consumers, and several new natural gas projects are expected to start up this year, the first of which will be Rota 3.
Rota 3 natural gas extraction
Brazil relies on hydropower for 66-75% of its total electricity production, but in 2015 and 2021 a severe drought compromised Brazil's ability to generate power from this source. To fill the gap, Brazil has turned to gas power, purchasing most of its needs from Bolivia, supplemented by LNG from the United States and other countries. Now the gas production projects under development will increase the supply of gas on international markets.
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The article Brazil cuts natural gas imports to a 20-year low. The hydroelectric roar comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-brasile-taglia-le-importazioni-di-gas-naturale-al-minimo-da-20-anni-lidroelettrico-ruggisce/ on Sun, 11 Feb 2024 08:00:38 +0000.