BERLIN—Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva believes his nation wants to join OPEC to help bring down oil prices, a leading German weekly quoted him as saying Friday.
Silva said in the interview published in Der Spiegel news magazine that his nation plans to exploit massive deep-water oil reserves discovered near Rio de Janeiro.
"Then Brazil will become a major oil exporter," Silva said in an advance copy of the interview to be published Saturday. "We want to join OPEC and to try to make oil cheaper."
Brazil's proven oil reserves are 11.8 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Brazil on May 13-15.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is a group of nations headquartered in Vienna that meets regularly to try to ensure stability of prices in international oil markets.
