Brazil’s oil and gas giant Petrobras has announced that its average production of oil and natural gas, in Brazil and abroad, was 2.88 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in August 2015, an increase of 3.1% compared to July , when the volume produced was 2.80 million.
According to Petrobras, this production represents a new historical record, 0.8% higher than the last record of 2.86 million boed reached in December 2014. This volume is also 4.5% higher than the registered in August 2014 (2.76 million boed).
Oil and gas production in Brazil
Petrobras’ total production of oil and natural gas in Brazil was 2.69 million boed, a 3.1% increase compared to the previous month (2.61 million boed), also representing a new domestic production record (0.6% higher than the last record of 2.67 million boed reached in December 2014).
The company noted that the total production operated by Petrobras in the country, including the portion operated for the partners, exceeded for the first time the 3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, reaching 3.01 boed.
Petrobras’ oil production was 2.21 million barrels of oil (bpd), 3% higher than the 2.14 million bpd produced the previous month, constituting thus the second best historic milestone.
The company explained that the increase is due to the starting of operation on July 31, 2015 of the FPSO Cidade de Itaguaí anchored in Iracema Norte, located in northwest of the Lula field, in the Santos Basin pre-salt area. This plataform has the capacity to process 150 thousand barrels of oil and 8 million m³ of gas daily.
Additionally, the return of operation platforms that were under stops scheduled maintenance was also a factor that contributed to the good performance of the month.
Natural gas production in Brazil, excluding the liquefied volume, also represented a new record of 77.2 million m³/day (3.6% higher than the previous month).
New records in pre-salt
Furthermore, in the pre-salt area, two new records were achieved: the daily production operated by Petrobras, with volume of 896 thousand bpd registered on August 19; and the monthly production operated by the company, which reached 859 thousand bpd for the month.
Oil and gas production abroad
Petrobras also said that 192 thousand boed were produced abroad, 3.8% higher the 185 thousand boed produced in July, mainly due to the return of operation of the Saint Malo field platform, located in the Gulf of Mexico, in the United States.
Oil production was 101 thousand bpd, 5.2% higher than the 969 thousand bpd produced in July and the average natural gas production abroad was 15.4 million m³/day, 1.9% higher than July’s production, which was 15.1 million m³/day.