Brazil's Petrobras will alter its pricing for LPG with the goal of eliminating some indirect subsidies, CEO Pedro Parente said on Nov. 1.

Parente said the company will start charging higher prices to LPG distributors who use the company's storage facilities, ending a policy of charging the same price for distributors who use their own storage.

"What we are doing is to allow the elimination of cross-subsidies in LPG logistics, trying to stimulate investments in storage by distributors," Parente told reporters after participating in an event in Rio de Janeiro.

Parente said that small increases in LPG prices in some parts of Brazil were due to the change in storage policy, but Petrobras had not increased the price of LPG for distributors using their own storage and did not plan to do so.

Millions of families in Brazil still use LPG sold in cylinders for cooking, despite a recent increase in the use of piped natural gas.

Petrobras said its changes in pricing will have very limited impact on consumers. The company estimated an average increase of 0.36% in the value of a 13-kilogram cylinder, currently sold for 55 Brazilian reais, or US$17.07.

The oil company did not estimate the impact on the revenue in this business segment from the pricing change. (US$1 = 3.222 Brazilian reais)