BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil’s government on Tuesday approved joining OPEC+, a group of major oil-exporting nations, signaling the country’s evolution into a major oil state just nine months ahead of hosting the United Nations’ annual climate summit.

The National Council for Energy Policy’s approval came in response to an official invitation in 2023. The group includes the 12 members of OPEC, the longstanding group set up to coordinate oil production to stabilize markets, plus 10 more significant oil-producing nations with Russia by far the largest.

Though non-OPEC members agree to cooperate with OPEC nations, Brazil won’t have any binding obligation such as production cuts, Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira said at a news conference. The participation will be limited to the Charter of Cooperation, a permanent forum for OPEC and OPEC+ countries to discuss industry-related issues. The South American country will not participate in decisions.

Silveira called the charter merely “a forum for discussing strategies among oil-producing countries. We should not be ashamed of being oil producers. Brazil needs to grow, develop and create income and jobs.”

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva began his third term in 2023 touting himself as an environmental defender, and has worked to reduce deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and to protect Indigenous rights. But he has also argued that new oil revenues could finance a transition to green energy.

In recent weeks, he has pressed the country’s environmental regulator to approve exploratory drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River, one of the most biodiverse regions of the world.

Brazil is the world’s seventh-largest oil producer, with about 4.3 million barrels daily, or 4% of the world’s output, according to Energy Information Administration, a U.S. government agency. In 2024, crude oil became the country’s top export product, accounting for 13.3% of Brazil’s foreign sales, surpassing soy.

The U.S. is the world’s largest producer at nearly 22 million barrels daily, with Saudi Arabia, the largest producer in OPEC, at about 11 million barrels.

Brazil’s move is “comprehensive and coherent,” said Luis Eduardo Duque Dutra, an oil expert and a professor in the chemistry department at the Federal University of Rio Janeiro. He noted that, along with OPEC+, the energy council also approved the country’s membership in two other bodies, the International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency.