Brazil's cabotage association Abac wants to create a sustainable maritime fuel corridor for Brazilian-flagged vessels sailing between countries of the Mercosur market block, the institution's president Luiz Fernando Resano told Argus.
The green corridor proposal — in which vessels that use lower-carbon fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol would receive tax benefits — is expected to be presented at the next meeting of the commission of experts on maritime transport of South American countries in Paraguay in April. But Resano said the project has no set date for starting, and that Abac will conduct research until April to propose the route and suggest ports and fuels to be included in the project.
Currently, Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras is the only company capable of supplying alternative bunker fuels among the five Mercosur members Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, — a 24pc blend of biodiesel bunker fuel at the port of Rio Grande.
Expanding the availability of lower-carbon marine fuels in the region would require significant time and effort. Brazil, for example, would need to adapt its port infrastructure to supply biodiesel and ethanol for bunkering, Resano said. Public policies must be created to boost the production of alternative fuels, as the world is moving toward more robust decarbonization goals, even with the postponement of the approval of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) net-zero framework, he said.
If IMO's carbon pricing mechanism proposal moves forward next year and comes into effect in 2028, Brazil may not have enough time to prepare for decarbonization, he said. The green corridor, then, would act as a driver of regional demand to prepare the supply chain for the future, Resano said.
Abac's proposal is a way to leverage Brazil's potential in the energy transition, given that Brazil is the second-largest biofuel producer in the world, according to the International Energy Agency. It produced approximately 26,400 m³/d of biodiesel in January-September, data from hydrocarbons regulator ANP show.
