Brazil has decided to stay out of OPEC for the time being as it seeks to expand its oil production, Bloomberg has reported, citing energy minister Bento Albuquerque. “The idea is just to increase our production and to participate more in the international oil and gas market,” Albuquerque told Bloomberg in an interview. “But this is not a plan for Brazil to join OPEC or any other association or group of oil and gas producers. We don’t want restrictions, we want to increase our production.” Interestingly, it was Albuquerque who told Reuters earlier this month that Brazil would begin talks with OPEC to discussing joining it later this year. But now the minister said that even if the talks were successful, Brazil would not join the cartel this year. The idea is said to have originated with Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, who last year said that OPEC’s top producer […]