Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras has set two new monthly output records with pre-salt production in May 2015.
According to the press release, production handled by the company, including both Petrobras and partner production, reached a new high of 726,000 barrels per day, up 1.6% on the April figure (715,000 bpd). This includes Petrobras’ own record output of 519,000 bpd, 3.2% up on the April figure (503,000 bpd).
Petrobras says that domestic and foreign total oil and natural gas production in May 2015 was 2.766 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), up 6.2% on the volume produced in May 2014 (2.605 million boed) and down 0.7% on April (2.785 million boed).
In Brazil, Petrobras’ total oil and gas production in May totaled 2.574 million, 0.8% lower than in April (2.596 million boed).
The company’s exclusive oil production in Brazil was 2.111 million bpd in May, 1% down on the April figure (2.134 million bpd).
Production was impacted by a higher number of scheduled maintenance stoppages on platforms in May, in comparison to the previous month. According to the company, this effect was partially offset by the start-up of the early production system in the Atapu field (in the Transfer of Rights area), implemented on the FPSO Cidade de São Vicente in the Santos Basin pre-salt. Production was also reinstated on platform P-58, in the Campos Basin area known as Parque das Baleias, after completion of maintenance work in April.
Petrobras natural gas production in Brazil, excluding the liquefied gas, was 73.593 million m3/day, practically unchanged on the April figure (73.370 million m3/day).
Foreign oil and gas production
In May, 192,000 boed were produced abroad, 1.2% up on the previous month’s output of 190,000 boed, mainly due to the performance of gas wells in Hadrian South field in the North American Gulf of Mexico.
Average oil production abroad in May stood at 101,000 boed, stable in comparison to the volume produced in April (102,000 bpd).
Average natural gas production abroad was 15.3 million m3/d, 3.2% up on the 14.8 million m3/d produced in the previous month, mainly due to the performance of wells in the Hadrian South Basin.