Mercado de refino de petróleo no Brasil

Abstract

The Brazilian refining park started being developed in the 1930s. In the 1950s, the so-called monopoly of oil was established in Brazil and, since that time, major investments have been performed, with the aim of obtaining scale gains and reducing the costs of supply of oil products. With this, today, the country holds capacity to virtually meet its internal demand. Big refineries were built to meet the demand of specific regions of the country, under the premise of a refinery being complementary to the work of another, rather than them competing with each other. As a result of this strategy, the great Brazilian refineries, or a set of them, have regional monopolies in their respective areas of operation. This article contains information about: (i) the placement and the capacity of the refineries installed; (ii) the need for investments to meet the demand of oil products in the next decade; and (iii) the price policy of oil products adopted in Brazil over the past 15 years. In addition, it also addresses the American and European markets, aiming to contribute to the necessary reflections on the implementation of a new model that can change the Brazilian market for oil products.