Brazil's oil production is expected to increase by around 300,000 barrels a day in 2022, an increase of 10% from last year, Minister of Mines and Energy Bento Albuquerque said on Wednesday.
Albuquerque's statement was made at the opening of an International Energy Agency (IEA) ministerial meeting in Paris, and comes at a time of oil market stress and demand from nations like the United States for greater production from oil producers across the globe.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy said on Twitter that the increase in production is an "important contribution by Brazil to the stabilization of global energy markets" and that it results from regulatory advances, modernization of the Brazilian energy market and investments made in the pre-salt layer.
A large part of the Brazilian production of the commodity comes from state-run Petrobras, which like other private oil companies operating in the country bases production decisions on demand and pricing. The company declined to comment.
(Reuters - Reporting by Letícia Fucuchima and Roberto Samora in Sao Paulo/Writing by Carolina Pulice / Editing by Matthew Lewis)