Commodities

Brazil Is Oil Market Wildcard After Near-Million-Barrel Plunge

  • A flurry of offshore-platform repairs cratered crude output
  • Recovery from worst of outages seen happening in coming months

Petrobras oil rigs near Angra dos Reis, Brazil.

Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg
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Brazil’s rebound from a stunning collapse in oil production promises to complicate OPEC efforts to micromanage global supplies and prices.

Daily crude output in the South American powerhouse kicked off the year at 3.73 million barrels, then plummeted nearly 25% as roustabouts crawled all over mammoth offshore platforms to perform repairs and replace worn-out gear.