Brazil's ANP publishes RenovaBio sanctions list despite court injunctions

Brazil's National Petroleum Agency said on July 21 that 34 domestic fuel distributors have failed to meet national decarbonization targets from 2020 through 2024, setting them up for sanctions.

Several distributors appear multiple times for noncompliance over more than one year, according to the agency, or ANP. However, the names of 22 distributors were redacted due to active court injunctions, known as "liminares," a legal strategy routine in Brazil's litigious fuel sector.

This was the first time the agency, or ANP, has issued a "commercial restrictions list" under Brazil's revamped RenovaBio framework, which was updated earlier this year to strengthen enforcement of decarbonization targets.

The list is based on already-decided administrative proceedings and includes only companies that have not fulfilled their individual obligations to purchase and retire decarbonization credits, or CBIOs, according to the ANP. The restrictions are effective July 22.

The list also sheds light on the financial impact of noncompliance. Among the companies facing the largest fines are:

• Petroball Distribuidora de Petróleo – Real 33.37 million ($6 million)
• Watt Distribuidora Brasileira de Combustíveis e Derivados de Petróleo – Real 28.61 million
• Royal Fic Distribuidora de Derivados de Petróleo – Real 20.19 million
• Stock Distribuidora de Petróleo – Real 13.24 million
• Distribuidora de Combustíveis Saara – Real 11.2 million

Under the new RenovaBio rules, any company that supplies fuel to a distributor listed in the sanctions list — including producers, importers, cooperatives, other distributors, commercial ethanol companies and petrochemical processing hubs — could face penalties of up to Real 500 million ($90 million).

Legal tensions continue

As of July 21, at least 10 distributors had secured court protection to avoid inclusion, arguing that public disclosure without final legal judgment constituted a premature and disproportionate sanction. These injunctions cite concerns over due process and the potential commercial damage from being listed, especially for companies still disputing their compliance obligations or that have deposited CBIO values into judicial escrow.

In one notable ruling, the 28th Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro determined that the penalties introduced under Law No. 15,082/2024 — including bans on fuel sales and imports — cannot be retroactively applied to 2024 behavior, as the law only came into force in March 2025. The 12th Federal Civil Court of Salvador reached a similar conclusion, barring the ANP from enforcing penalties for the 2024 cycle.

According to filings available in ANP's electronic process system, 18 distributors failed to comply with their individual carbon reduction credit retirement targets for the RenovaBio 2024 compliance year by the Dec. 31 deadline.

Despite these decisions, the published list includes penalties for 2020-2023, reflecting the regulator's interpretation that earlier enforcement remains valid under the preexisting RenovaBio statute.

The National Association of Fuel Distributors, or ANDC, welcomed the injunctions, warning that ANP's enforcement approach risks causing economic and reputational damage to companies still contesting their targets.

"What we are seeing is a sui generis mechanism of administrative punishment that raises uncommon regulatory challenges," said Francisco Neves, executive director of ANDC. "This is an unprecedented case of the summary suspension of rights — to be enforced not by regulators, but by private agents with commercial interests, in a non-individualized manner, without specific administrative proceedings, through a public list that results in a broad prohibition on selling fuels to sanctioned distributors."

Producers take precautionary steps

Prior to the list's release, state-controlled oil giant Petrobras had notified clients on July 18 that it would suspend fuel deliveries to any distributor named in the sanctions list — regardless of contracted volumes or legal disputes.

"As a regulated entity, Petrobras has taken the necessary measures to fully comply with the determinations issued on July 21, 2025, following the official publication of ANP's list of sanctioned distributors," the company said on July 21 in a statement to Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. "These measures refer to the prohibition on fuel sales to non-compliant distributors under the RenovaBio program."

Some ethanol producers had also paused spot market transactions amid the legal uncertainty, awaiting clarity on how the sanctions would be enforced.

For now, it remains unclear whether producers will be required to comply with the ban if judicial injunctions remain in place, and how disputes between supply chain actors will be resolved in practice

In the days leading up to the release, a preliminary version of the list was shared informally among market participants. That document named 35 distributors and included redacted entries labeled "Injunction granted to prevent inclusion on the sanctions list." However, that version only covered the years 2020-2023, further fueling confusion about what period the ANP intended to enforce under the new law.

Now that the agency has confirmed its intent to update the list daily as new cases are resolved or injunctions expire, the full regulatory impact remains in flux. The ANP emphasized that these updates will take effect the day after publication.

"The publication of this list aims to reinforce the effectiveness of the RenovaBio program, promote fairness among market participants, and support Brazil's national decarbonization targets," the agency said in a statement.