Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said he will be able to "work normally" during several weeks of convalescence in the capital Brasilia
President Lula has overseen an expansion of Brazil's oil production during his third term in office. AFP

Brazil will join OPEC+ in January, Reuters reported, citing an OPEC+ delegate, without identifying the source.

Brazil is projected to be the world's fourth largest oil producing country by the end of the decade. The country has witnessed steady production growth for nearly two decades thanks to increasing exploration in the offshore Santos and Campos pre-salt basins under governments across the political spectrum.

"Brazil received an invitation to join OPEC+," a spokesperson from Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy said in response to a request for comment from International Business Times. "Minister of Mines and Energy Alexandre Silveira is analyzing the issue."

If Brazil decides to join the group, it's unclear whether President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will seek membership through executive action or if he will need legislative approval.

"Today, Brazil has become one of the biggest exporters and they've stopped buying up crude. So the door is open," OPEC+ Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais said at a conference earlier in November.

Two years ago, government officials in the administration of Jair Bolsonaro weren't enthusiastic about joining the oil cartel.

"But this is not a plan for Brazil to join OPEC or any other association or group of oil and gas producers," Bento Albuquerque, Brazil's former Energy Minister under former President Jair Bolsonaro, told Reuters in November 2021. "We don't want restrictions, we want to increase our production."

OPEC+ representatives are currently participating in COP28, and earlier today met to discuss additional collective oil production cuts ahead of an anticipated oil surplus in early 2024. Brazil's oil output is up 5% in 2023.

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