The absence of a Latin American LPG price reference and persistent infrastructure bottlenecks could limit Brazil's ability to absorb growing Argentinian supply, market participants said today during an LPG conference held in Buenos Aires.
Executives from Copa Energia and Interco highlighted structural obstacles, from Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras' dominance in price formation to inadequate terminals, that continue to challenge competitive imports despite Argentina's rising exportable surplus.
Interco commercial director Marcos Ferraz said the region cannot fully benefit from Argentina's emerging LPG surplus without clear Mercosur-based pricing mechanisms.
"South American LPG is still benchmarked to Mont Belvieu,and that prevents transparent valuation of the molecule in local markets," he said, referring to the Texas benchmark for LPG and NGL pricing.He also argued that establishing a regional reference would enable a more competitive and predictable trading environment.
Argentina's emergence as a large exporter creates momentum for regional pricing models that reflect local production costs and logistics advantages, Ferraz said. Today's reliance on US benchmarks obscures the actual delivered value for Southern Cone buyers, he added.
Argentina became Brazil's main LPG supplier in 2025, shipping 49pc of all 1.6mn metric tonnes (t) imported by Brazil. The US sent 48pc to Brazil, according to data from Brazil's hydrocarbons regulator ANP.
Copa Energia's chief executive Pedro Turqueto echoed the concerns, saying Brazil's downstream remains constrained by a price-setting model "almost exclusively shaped by Petrobras," leaving independent importers exposed to losses even as Brazil relies on around 2mn t/yr of imports.
Turqueto said Copa began receiving continuous LPG flows from Argentina in 2021, mainly to supply southern Brazil. While Argentina and the US now provide a significant share of Brazil's imported LPG, importers often face unworkable arbitrage conditions, forcing them to buy from Petrobras even when international procurement seems viable.
He added that the country still lacks sufficient terminals, especially in the northeast and the south, to consistently receive LPG from Argentina.
