Brazil’s government is studying requests by Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) to increase fuel prices for a third time this year and raise the ethanol content in gasoline, said Energy Minister Edison Lobao.

An increase in ethanol levels to 25 percent from 20 percent probably won’t happen this year, Lobao told reporters today in Brasilia.

Petrobras, as the state-owned oil company is known, wants to stem losses from fuel imports using cheaper sugarcane-based ethanol.

“There isn’t any indication yet that the ethanol stored is enough to meet the additional demand,” Lobao said. “We have to meet with producers and the finance and agriculture ministries to analyze it.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Mario Sergio Lima in Brasilia Newsroom at mlima11@bloomberg.net; Maria Luiza Rabello in Brasilia Newsroom at mrabello@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net