Rio de Janeiro-base Petrobras hasn’t been affected by the attacks because it doesn’t ship much oil through the Gulf, Prates said. Houthi militants have been targeting merchant ships in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Oil prices could top US$90 per barrel this year if attacks escalate on ships in the Red Sea, according to the top executive at Brazilian state-controlled oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro.
“We have a very fragile neck there for the oil and gas business,” CEO Jean Paul Prates said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “Nobody was paying attention to that for decades. You have Yemen on one side and Somalia on the other.”
