(Jan 30): Oil prices could top US$90 (RM425.56) per barrel this year if attacks escalate on ships in the Red Sea, according to the top executive at Brazilian state-controlled oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

“We have a very fragile neck there for the oil and gas business,” chief executive officer Jean Paul Prates said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “Nobody was paying attention to that for decades. You have Yemen on one side and Somalia on the other.”

Rio de Janeiro-base Petrobras hasn’t been affected by the attacks because it doesn’t ship much oil through the Gulf, Prates said. Houthi militants have been targeting merchant ships in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“Petrobras is pretty protected,” Prates said. “We don’t use the Suez Canal. We don’t use the Gulf so much.”

Brazil will help mediate the border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana, Prates said. Exxon Mobil Corp has made a series of multibillion-barrel oil discoveries in the area, and Petrobras could invest in oil projects in either country, he said.

Without any escalation, oil should continue trading between US$70 and US$90 this year, Prates said.