Brazil Postpones Hearing on Mandatory Natural Gas Sales Plan to November 19

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 20, Brazil's National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels decided to postpone the hearing on the plan to reduce concentration in the natural gas market from the originally scheduled October 21 to November 19. The decision was unanimously approved by the agency's board of directors, and the relevant Notice No. 16/2026 was published in Brazil's Official Gazette of the Union that same day. The deadline for hearing registration was also extended to November 5.

The plan aims to reduce concentration in Brazil's natural gas market through a mandatory natural gas sales mechanism. According to disclosures by Petrobras, the draft regulation would require the company to sell part of its natural gas holdings through auctions, with the regulator determining the initial minimum price, sales volume and implementation period, and other market participants may participate in purchasing or reselling. Petrobras submitted its comments to the regulator in September and supported the postponement.

The National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels launched Public Consultation No. 16/2026 in August this year, with the consultation period running from August 14 to September 28. The consultation results published by the regulator on October 5 showed that a total of 40 formal responses were received, generating 655 comments on the draft provisions and related topics. The regulator's earlier targeted survey of market participants covered sales scale, plan duration, transaction structure, auction models, natural gas product design, infrastructure access, competition protection measures and subsequent monitoring mechanisms.

Petrobras believes that the current draft may affect the predictability of investment in natural gas production, imports and infrastructure, and stated that mandatory sales of existing natural gas supply volumes may primarily alter the market allocation of existing resources. The impact analysis previously published by the regulator identifies expanding competition in the natural gas supply market as the plan's primary regulatory objective, and notes that Brazil's natural gas market still has a high degree of supply concentration even after the introduction of new participants.

The postponement does not change the fact that the plan to reduce concentration in the natural gas market remains at the stage of regulatory rule-making. The public hearing on November 19 will continue to gather opinions on the draft regulation, and the hearing time has also been expanded to 10:00–12:00 and 14:00–18:00 that day.