Brazil’s attempt to open liquefied natural gas terminals to third-party users has triggered a new dispute in the country’s gas market, with operators warning that the matter could end up in court.
The National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, known as ANP, published Resolution 1,003/2026 in early July to regulate negotiated and non-discriminatory access to LNG terminals. The rule gives practical form to a principle included in Brazil’s 2021 New Gas Law, which sought to reduce concentration in a market historically dominated by a small number of infrastructure owners and suppliers.
This is single-source reporting, based on CNN Brasil’s account of the dispute.
Large industrial consumers and prospective gas suppliers argue that access to regasification terminals is essential for competition. Without it, they say, new entrants cannot import LNG or sell gas at scale because a few companies control the infrastructure needed to bring the fuel into the market.
Operators of terminals and processing units, including Petrobras, Eneva and Oncorp, take the opposite view. They argue that many terminals were built with private capital to serve specific thermal power plants and must remain flexible enough to respond to sudden swings in electricity demand. In Brazil, gas-fired plants often run more heavily when reservoirs are low or other power sources cannot meet demand.
The legal question is how far the government can limit an owner’s preferred use of private infrastructure in the name of competition. ANP says the resolution follows the New Gas Law, government decrees and policy guidelines from the National Energy Policy Council, and that the process went through public consultation and hearings.
The rule preserves a share of capacity for owners to move their own gas. For new terminals, that preference may cover the full operational capacity for the first ten years. After 30 years from the first operating authorization, however, the owner’s preference must fall to zero.
That phase-out is one of the most sensitive points. Lívia Amorim, an energy partner at Veirano Advogados, told CNN Brasil that the agency may have gone beyond what the law allows. She argued that while the New Gas Law recognizes an owner’s right of preference, it does not establish a gradual reduction or require that preference to disappear.
Industrial consumers reject that interpretation. Adrianno Lorenzon, natural gas director at Abrace, the association representing large industrial energy consumers and free consumers, said Brazil has regasification capacity equal to twice demand. Even with maximum thermal power dispatch, he argued, there is available capacity.
Abrace says remunerated use of idle capacity would not strip owners of their rights. Instead, it would generate revenue from underused assets while increasing liquidity and competition in the gas market.
Operators counter that apparent idle capacity can function as reserve capacity for the power system. Because dispatch decisions depend on rainfall, reservoir levels, other power sources and the National Electric System Operator, LNG demand can rise quickly. For companies that won contracts in Brazil’s capacity reserve auction, guaranteed gas availability is central to supply security.
Oncorp chief executive João Guilherme Mattos said access rules must consider who took the investment risk. His company is developing the Suape Regasification Terminal in Pernambuco, planned as Brazil’s first multiuser LNG terminal, with estimated investment of about R$2 billion. Termopernambuco, owned by Neoenergia, is the first confirmed customer, with gas supply contracted from Shell.
Mattos argued that early offtake contracts help finance terminals and should not be treated the same as later access requests. Price, priority and conditions, he said, should reflect different risks and commitments.
Former ANP director-general José Cesário Cecchi said resistance from owners was expected because many projects were designed to serve their own plants, not to sell terminal capacity. Still, he argued that the New Gas Law classified regasification terminals, processing units and production-flow pipelines as essential infrastructure subject to negotiated access.
The dispute comes as Brazil prepares for a new LNG investment cycle. The country has seven regasification terminals in operation, and projects such as Suape, a new Pecém terminal and the planned Hub Sudeste could raise the total to about ten in coming years. The expansion is tied to roughly 17 gigawatts of thermal power contracted in the capacity reserve auction and to efforts to diversify gas suppliers.
For large consumers, the concentration of terminals among Petrobras, Eneva, New Fortress Energy and other groups strengthens the case for access. For operators, ANP’s rule risks unsettling the contracts that made those assets viable.