Marcos V. Chiliatto

While tankers avoid the Strait of Hormuz, Brazil is pumping more oil than ever, and buyers are turning to Brazil to fill the gap. About a fifth of all the oil the world uses normally passes through that one narrow strait between Iran and Oman. Ships keep getting attacked there, at least 16 times in September alone. Brazil pumped a record 4.6 million barrels of oil a day in August, 18% more than a year earlier and its third record month in a row. Most of it comes from the pre-salt, oil buried under the Atlantic Ocean below miles of water, rock and a salt layer up to 2,000 meters thick. One field, Búzios, pumped almost 1.2 million barrels a day by itself. Brazil's oil fields sit in the open Atlantic, thousands of miles from the war zone. In the first half of 2026, China spent a record $15.1 billion on Brazilian oil, 62% more than a year before. China now buys more than half of all the oil Brazil sells abroad. When the world's oil map gets dangerous, Brazil becomes the safe haven.