Diesel sales have already recovered to pre-crisis levels, said Petrobras' refining and natural gas director, Anelise Lara. According to her, in the case of gasoline, consumption is also recovering, but still with volumes "slightly below" the period before the covid-19 pandemic arrived in Brazil and imposed the need for social isolation measures.

The executive also pointed out that she expects new "moderate increases" in demand for fuels for June and July.

Anelise mentioned that in May, the company sold 3.2 billion liters of diesel and 1.4 billion liters of gasoline. "We have practically recomposed what we were selling before the pandemic, especially in the case of diesel," she said in an online interview with the Café com Cavanha channel.

According to her, the utilization rate of the oil refineries has already returned to pre-crisis levels, in the range of 80%. In early April, the "toughest period" for falling demand, this index was below 60%.

GLP 

The director said that the company has made returns of imported cargoes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), after a significant increase in fuel consumption in the first months of the covid-19 pandemic.

She recalls that, at first, there was a rush for LPG by consumers, for stock.

"We increased imports at that time. Today we are already returning cargo of imported LPG because we already have enough stocks," he said.