São Paulo – Brazil almost tripled imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar over the first eight months of this year. According to figures disclosed by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, purchases rose from US$ 21.2 million from January to August 2010 to US$ 82.2 million in the same period in 2011. The increase was 286%.
Qatar is the world’s third main exporter of natural gas and also has the third largest proven reserves of the commodity, according to figures disclosed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The proven reserves are 25.3 trillion cubic metres and exports totalled 94.8 billion cubic metres last year.
Apart from Qatar, also exporting GNL to the Brazilian market from January to August were Trinidad and Tobago, with US$ 48 million, and the United States, with US$ 13 million, totalling approximately US$ 144 million. Qatar was the main supplier of the product. Nigeria, which had exported US$ 136 million in liquefied natural gas to the country in the first eight months of last year, exported none this year.
This year, in fact, Brazil reduced its imports of LNG, as in the first eight months of 2010, total purchases reached US$ 233 million. “Brazil uses liquefied natural gas when demand is rising,” explained Tendências Consultoria Econômica analyst Walter De Vitto. He said that in 2010, due to the La Niña climate phenomenon, there was lower chance of hydroelectric generation. In these cases, Brazil needs to use more energy from thermoelectric power plants, which use gas.
The price of LNG is also not favourable as it must be transformed into liquid in the country of origin, for later transportation by ship to Brazil, and, before use, regasification in Brazil. Therefore, the price of natural gas imported from Bolivia via pipeline is lower. Petrobras, however, has started investing in regasification mills not to be so dependent on Bolivian gas. The Brazilian state-owned oil company has had problems with the neighbouring nation for several years.
The LNG imported from Qatar entered Brazil through the states in which Petrobras has regasification mills, namely Ceará and Rio de Janeiro. Vitto believes that the demand for liquefied natural gas should drop in coming years, due to the expanded domestic offer of gas, which should rise significantly over the next 10 to 15 years. “Unless the Brazilian economy grows much,” said the analyst.
Apart from the discovery of new gas fields, Brazil has also started producing gas from the pre-salt layer. In August this year, Petrobras production of natural gas in the country reached 57.8 million cubic metres a day, with growth of 9% over the same month in 2010. Abroad, the company produced 17.2 million cubic metres, with growth of 6.6%.
*Translated by Mark Ament
