Brazil’s massive offshore oil boom, notably in the deepwater offshore pre-salt oilfields, is continuing to grow despite weaker oil prices and the sharp impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Strong demand from Asian refiners, especially those in China, for lighter sweeter crude oils saw demand for Brazilian crude oil soar since the end of 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic, a second round of lockdowns among Europe’s largest economies, a rapidly decelerating world economy, and a poor global economic outlook have done little to curb China’s insatiable thirst for crude oil. Data presented by Reuters shows China’s crude oil imports for the first 10 months of 2020 expanded by almost 11% year over year to an equivalent of 11 million barrels per day. Brazil has emerged as a key supplier of crude oil to the world’s second-largest economy. This can be attributed to the introduction of IMO 2020 in January which significantly […]