Brazil’s Petrobras has announced that its oil and natural gas production in March amounted to 2.55 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), of which 2.36 million boe were produced in Brazil and 183,000 boed abroad. In addition, Petrobras has set yet another monthly pre-salt output record exceeding the one set in February.
The average oil production in March was 2.02 million barrels per day (bpd), 3% below the volume produced in the previous month, which was 2.09 million bpd. In this production, 1.94 million bpd was produced in Brazil and 86,000 bpd abroad.
The reduction in production compared to the previous month’s levels was due mainly to the continuation of shutdowns in large production units, corrective maintenance on P-31, which resumed production on March 28, and the fire aboard the P-48 platform, whose operation was resumed on April 16.
In the first quarter, Petrobras’ oil production in Brazil was 1.98 million bpd, due to the concentration of a significant volume of scheduled production stoppages in this period, which represented approximately 5% of production. This year is expected a volume stoppages of 2.5% of the average production of the year.
Pre-salt oil production
In March, the company’s oil and gas production in the pre-salt layer operated by Petrobras grew 1.2% over the previous month to 1.104 million boed, a new monthly record, exceeding February record (1.091 million boe).
The company’s oil output operated by Petrobras also grew 1.2% when compared to the previous month to an average of 884,000 bpd. This volume also represents a new monthly record when compared to the previous month (874,000 bpd).
Natural gas production
The company’s natural gas production in Brazil, excluding liquefied volume, was 67.8 million m³/day, 10% lower than in February (75.4 million m³/day).
The average production abroad was 16.4 million m³/day, 2.4% higher than the 16 million m³/day reached in the previous month.
Annual Production Target
With the startup of FPSOs Cidade de Saquarema (Lula Central) and Cidade de Caraguatatuba (Lapa), and the smaller number of shutdowns scheduled for the second half, the annual target of oil production in Brazil, from 2.145 million bpd, is maintained, Petrobras concluded.