(Reuters, 3.Feb.2022) — An independent refiner has imported the first cargo of Guyanese crude oil into Brazil, according to tanker tracking data and a person familiar with the deal. Since oil exports began about two years ago, the tiny South American nation of fewer than 800,000 residents is becoming an oil and gas powerhouse following discoveries of more than 10 billion barrels of recoverable resources.
The import to its southern neighbor, meanwhile, widens the variety of crude grades Brazil processes and reflects the rise of independent oil refiners amid the divestiture of state-controlled Petrobras’ refining assets.
The oil, discharged between late January and early February from tanker Sonangol Portoamboim, was sold by Exxon Mobil Corp in a spot deal to the more than 300,000 barrel-per-day Mataripe refinery in Brazil, operated by Acelen and backed by Abu Dhabi’s Mubalada fund, according to the source.
Exxon declined to comment.
Many Brazilian and Guyanese crude grades compete in quality, with producers in both nations pursuing some of the same customers since 2019, when a consortium led by U.S. Exxon pumped Guyana’s first oil.
Most of the sweet light crude from Guyana, which does not refine any of its oil, ends up in Asian markets. Petroleo Brasilero SA, as the Rio de Janeiro firm is formally known, also has gained market share in that region with its lower-sulfur crudes and fuel oil.
The 1 million-barrel cargo of Liza crude departed in early January from the Liza Destiny, a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility off Guyana’s coast, to the ports of Aratu and Madre de Deus, in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, Refinitiv Eikon tanker tracking data showed.
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Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Sabrina Valle in Houston Editing by Marguerita Choy
