IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven noted that "major changes were emerging in the energy world," and one of the transformations is happening in Brazil, due to the massive deepwater oil resources unearthed by new seismic technologies. More super-giant fields, most of them offshore, have been discovered in Brazil over the past decade than anywhere else in the world. The IEA predicts Brazil's oil production will triple to 6 million barrels per day by 2035, accounting for one-third of the net growth in global oil production and making the South American nation the world's sixth-largest oil producer.
But Brazil is expected to maintain a green energy mix for its own needs.Thanks to its huge hydropower stations and its government-driven drive to promote domestically produced sugarcane ethanol, almost 45 percent of the country's primary energy demand is met by renewable energy, making Brazil's energy sector one of the least carbon-intensive in the world. And by 2035, it will rely on fossil fuels for less than 20 percent of its own energy needs, the IEA projects.