Brazilian crude exporters are working to address bottlenecks that are becoming overburdened by the country's surging exports, according to speakers at the Argus Americas Crude Summit today.
The potential lack of enough dynamic positioning (DP) tankers to ferry crude from the country's offshore production sites to the coast for transfer onto standard tankers for export is "something everyone has to be worried about," said Fernando Colares Nogueira, Petrobras' head of crude oil, said at the event.
Brazil's crude production climbed by 12pc year over year to 3.77mn b/d in 2025, and is expected to rise further this year.
To meet the demand, Petrobras has six of these DP tankers on order, said Nogueira, which would add to the roughly 50 that already operate along the Brazilian coast.
The port of Acu is the receiving port for much of these crude-laden DP tankers, but is struggling to keep up with the rising ship-to-ship transfers happening at the port and needs "relief", said PetroChina International Trading's vice president of crude Alipio Ferreira. Petrochina is investing in improving port infrastructure across the country, including building a new terminal in Puerto Central, said Ferreira.
