Analysis: Brazil boom takes world fuel markets by surprise

Reuters
By Brian Ellsworth and Reese Ewing
RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO Tue Aug 23, 2011 2:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - When Brazil discovered huge offshore crude reserves four years ago, state oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) sketched out plans to become a regional fuel exporter.

That plan has since been turned upside down.

Rapid domestic economic growth and rising fossil fuels use has turned it into a recurrent fuels importer, with occasional gasoline purchases in 2010 evolving into regular imports that may not cease until the end of the decade.

This leaves Brazil following the path of other emerging markets such as China, which upended the oil products markets ten years ago with explosive demand, and the Middle East, where rising incomes have spurred demand growth.

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