R$ 0.19 per liter was the gasoline price increase that Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, announced on Wednesday night (Sept 9) and scrapped about four hours later, in the early hours of Thursday. In practice, the move ended up going the other way: distributors will now buy fuel from the company paying R$ 0.19 less per liter. According to InfoMoney, the increase was announced to the press at 8:44 p.m. and the correction came at 12:53 a.m.
The original note said the average price of gasolina A, the refinery-grade fuel Petrobras sells to distributors before taxes and ethanol blending, would rise to R$ 3.24 per liter as of Thursday. The correction, also published on the website of Petrobras's own news agency, set it at R$ 3.05. The gap between the two figures is exactly the increase that was canceled.
"Unlike previously informed, the change in the price of Petrobras gasoline at points of sale will correspond only to the suspension of the discount. For distributors, the effect will be a reduction of R$ 0.19 in the price perceived with taxes," the company's correction note reads.
How it works: gasolina A leaves the refinery at R$ 3.05, but a liter costs an average R$ 6.51 at Brazilian pumps, more than double, according to ANP, the regulator that tracks fuel prices. The difference adds federal and state taxes, the blend with ethanol and the margins of distributors and gas stations. At R$ 0.19 per liter, the figure adds up to R$ 9.50 on a 50-liter tank.
Why an increase became a cut
The correction followed a swap of benefits. With the end of Provisional Measure 1.358/2026, a temporary decree with the force of law, Petrobras stopped applying as of Thursday a R$ 0.44-per-liter discount granted under a federal subsidy program. Because the government also cut R$ 0.63 per liter in PIS/Cofins, federal taxes on fuels, the net result for distributors is a drop: the tax break exceeds the discontinued discount by R$ 0.19.
On Wednesday the government also zeroed taxation on ethanol; both measures run from Sept 10 to Oct 9. For diesel, President Lula signed a provisional measure creating a new R$ 1-per-liter subsidy, which will add to the current R$ 1.12 one, valid until Sept 26, whenever the two overlap. Petrobras said it is waiting for the publication of the necessary acts to review diesel prices.
Pump prices have been rising since the start of the conflict between the United States and Iran on Feb 28, according to ANP data. Gasoline is up 3.6% and averaged R$ 6.51 per liter in early September; S10 diesel rose 13%, to R$ 6.88. Ethanol moved the other way, down 14.7% to R$ 3.95, about 60% of the gasoline price.