Petrobras, Ipiranga, Raízen and Vibra meet against ANP plan to expand diesel stocks

Large distributors, such as Ipiranga, Raízen and Vibra, join Petrobras to react against the ANP's plan to expand diesel stocks. Market leaders see the risk of an increase in product values, with the implemented measure.

Petrobras, in partnership with Raízen, Ipiranga and Vibra, market leaders in fuel distribution, reacted against the proposal of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP). Until this Friday, (15/07), the proposed by the ANP would be the expansion of S10 diesel stocks between September and November, in view of the risks of shortages for the second semester.

More time to measure implementation is what market leaders want

The company Petrobras asked for more time for the new proposal to be implemented, the state-owned company wants another three months from the publication of the measure. For example, if the document comes out this month, the rules would only come into effect in mid-October, and not in early September, as the ANP would like. It was Petrobras itself that — by defending the need for price adjustments — warned the government about the risks of shortages.

The state-owned company, however, made some criticisms of the agency's plan: "The increase in inventories at a time of product shortage in the international market, linked to the increase in world prices, may result in an increase in consumer prices in view of the costs charges imputed to the agents”, commented Petrobras, in a statement sent to the ANP. Same argument used by Ipiranga, Vibra and Raízen.

The ANP is trying to mitigate the risks of an eventual shock in imports of S10 diesel, due to the current scenario of the war in Ukraine. According to the regulatory agency, stocks have been falling from week to week, since the second half of May. Petrobras and Ipiranga ask the ANP to carry out a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA).

However, given the urgency of the measure, the agency waived the AIR and reduced the public consultation time from the regular 45 days to just five working days. According to the oil company, it is necessary to consider the potential increase in costs for the agents involved.

Petrobras states that the resolution of the proposal must be implemented in a similar way to all distributors

The state company along with Ipiranga, Raízen, Vibra and Acelen claim that the resolution of the measure should be applied equally to all fuel producers and distributors. Alesat, on the other hand, a smaller distributor than the market leaders, defends the opposite, claiming that smaller companies do not have the financial or operational conditions to assume new responsibilities. 

This is because the new measure by the ANP obliges producers and distributors to keep the equivalent of nine days of full stock per year, based on demand in the second half of last year. It is worth remembering that the measure applies to companies with a market share greater than 8% of S10 sales in the second half of 2021.

“Agents with regional operations play a decisive role in ensuring that local demand is met… In addition, maintaining higher inventories incurs additional costs for agents, therefore, the application of obligations to only a subset of agents impacts the competitiveness of agents and the competitive dynamics of the market”, defended the company Petrobras. 

However, according to Alesat, the mandatory storage of diesel oil by these small and medium-sized agencies could even result in the stoppage of the business, since the structure used for packaging the product is exactly the same used for the storage of the product in the process of commercialization.