Isaura Daniel
São Paulo – Algeria practically tripled oil export to Brazil in the first three months of this year. The value shipped was over US$ 171 million in the first quarter of 2003 to US$ 417.9 million in the same period this year, a 144% increase.
The growth confirms the tendency that was already appearing last year, when Brazil imported US$ 802 million in oil from Algeria, against the US$ 678.9 million of 2002.
The country has also collaborated for Africa to appear as the region showing greatest sales increases to Brazil in April. Brazilian import from the continent doubled this month, mainly pushed by an increase in oil sales. The tendency, according to specialists in the sector, is for Africa to grow even more as a supplier of the commodity.
"Bringing the product from the Middle East is more expensive as insurance cost on ships travelling in the region are higher due to conflicts," stated Brazilian Infrastructure Centre (CBIE) director Adriano Pires. He believes that the fact should benefit African countries, such as Algeria and Nigeria, which are already the main suppliers of the product to Brazil.
Up to the end of last year, however, some of the main oil exporters in the Middle East were still increasing their sales to Brazil. This was the case with Saudi Arabia, which increased its sales from US$ 523 million in 2002 to US$ 724 million. Iraq, however, ed a reduction in shipping.
Another large world oil producer, Venezuela, sold just US$ 3.4 million to Brazil, against the US$ 77 million exported in 2002.
Shipping from Argentina dropped by half, from US$ 308 million to US$ 155 million. Less traditional suppliers, such as the United States, Switzerland, , and Russia, each with revenues between US$ 20 million and US$ 45 million in oil sales to Brazil in 2002, did not sell to the country last year. In the month of April, Brazilian import from the Middle East dropped 44%. There are still no details, however, as to how much of this percentage is due to oil.
Large Algerian reserves
Another factor contributing to greater Brazilian oil purchases from the African country, according to Paulo Rossetti, commodity analyst at Global Invest, is the fact that the region has large amounts of oil, in a moment of low world oil stocks. Algeria has the 15th largest oil reserves in the world, 9 billion barrels.
Another fact is that Brazil is working on improving relations with the country. In 2003, a mission was sent to Algeria and bilateral accords were signed. One of them refers to oil exploration by Brazilian oil giant Petrobras together with Algerian state owned oil company Sonatrach, and another refers to Brazilian cattle beef sales to the country.
The Brazilian trade balance with Algeria shows a deficit. Last year, Brazil exported just US$ 153 million and imported US$ 1.1 billion.
More oil in Brazil
Brazil, in reality, has been trying to reduce oil import in recent years. "The objective is to no longer depend on other countries," stated Rossetti. Although this effort has been successful in significantly reducing volumes purchased, the volume paid for oil has been rising. The country managed to reduce import from US$ 3.9 billion in 2001 to US$ 3.4 billion in 2002, but last year the figure returned to US$ 3.9 billion.
Between the months of January and April, oil purchases reached US$ 1.8 billion, against US$ 1.4 billion in the same period last year. Oil price increases were greatly responsible for this figure.
Yesterday WTI oil prices were at US$ 39 per barrel, and Brent oil prices were at US$ 36.39 per barrel. At the end of February, these prices were respectively US$ 36 and US$ 32.
