Jean Paul Prates, the chief executive of Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petrobras, said Sunday that Haitham Al Ghais, the secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), will visit Brazil soon.
Mr. Prates wrote in a LinkedIn post that he and Mr. Al Ghais had “good conversations” at last week’s OPEC International Seminar in Vienna, adding that they share “converging points of view.”
In a video posted on Instagram, Mr. Prates shows that Mr. Al Ghais speaks fluent Portuguese. Mr. Al Ghais, who was born in Kuwait, says he’s “half Brazilian” — he lived in Brazil for about six years while his father served as a diplomat in the country.
Mr. Prates shared a letter sent by Mr. Al Ghais to the G7 countries, which states that OPEC member countries are “ready, willing, and able to play a key role in helping provide energy to the world and in reducing emissions,” and that a multilateral approach is needed to ensure adequate investment for a clean energy transition.
The press office of Petrobras told The Brazilian Report that the date and schedule for the meeting will be “proposed in the future.” OPEC did not immediately respond to our questions.
Diplomatic correspondence obtained by journalism nonprofit Agência Pública shows that in 2021, Saudi officials invited Brazil to join OPEC Plus, a looser association of oil-producing countries that in recent years has focused on reducing oil production to stabilize oil prices after the Covid pandemic.
At the time, Brazil was under the administration of Jair Bolsonaro. The Brazilian delegation returned from Saudi Arabia with lavish gifts, including jewelry worth millions of dollars. Brazil has not yet accepted the invitation to join OPEC Plus.
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