brasiliaoil companies operating in brazil intend to boost production this year after the russian invasion of ukraine sent crude prices higher according to mining and energy minister bento albuquerque companies including statecontrolled petroleo brasileiro sa or petrobras shell plc total energies sa equinor asa and galp energias sgps sa have all indicated their willingness to speed up production projects in the country he said the minister said he cant say by how much output will grow or how soon because that depends on the oil companies plans all of them want to do it mr albuquerque said in an interview the companies have signaled their intention to increase production this year not out of good will but because the market is attractive brazil is currently one of the worlds biggest oil producers with output of about 3 million barrels of oil per day in january and petrobras is the single biggest producer in the country the statecontrolled oil company has been boosting output from its rich deepwater and ultradeepwater deposits off the coast of rio de janeiro and sao paulo states russia was the worlds thirdbiggest crude producer in january after the us and saudi arabia according to the international energy agency but that countrys attack on its neighbor ukraine has disrupted that supply mr albuquerque said he spoke with us energy secretary jennifer granholm last week and that she asked him to increase the countrys oil production to help bring supply and demand into balance i told her brazil has already increased production in the past few years even during the pandemic investments are happening and will keep happening but i said ill talk to those companies mr albuquerque said of his conversation with his us counterpart the impact of the war threatens a supply shock that could slow world economic growth and push energy prices higher unless output increases elsewhere the iea said wednesday demand will outstrip supply as early as the second quarter of this year unless members of the organization of petroleum exporting countries boost production the iea said opec countries have so far resisted pressure from the us and allies to help make up for the shortfall though the united arab emirates said last week that it plans to push other members to lend a hand after the price of crude spiked briefly to over 139 on march 7 the highest since 2008 petrobras pushed the wholesale price of diesel fuel up by 25 and of gasoline by 19 angering brazils truck drivers and brazilian president jair bolsonaro mr bolsonaro said earlier this week that he cant interfere directly in petrobrass operations but he can make changes to the companys top management and mr albuquerque echoed those remarks thursday a year ago mr bolsonaro replaced the companys respected chief executive officer roberto castello branco with army general joaquim silva e luna amid a disagreement over the companys fuel price policies write to luciana magalhaes at lucianamagalhaeswsjcom and to jeffrey t lewis at jeffreylewiswsjcom