Brazil’s Petrobras brought eleven new pre-salt wells on stream in August. The company’s consolidated oil and natural gas production in Brazil and abroad reached 2,759 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed).
The overall production rose 2.2% from a reported production of 2,699 thousand boed in July. Oil production in Brazil increased by 2.7% from July.
Production growth
The rise in production was driven primarily by the ramp up of platforms P-55 at Roncador field (Campos Basin), P-58, which started-up in March at Parque das Baleias (northern section of Campos Basin), and FPSO Cidade de Paraty at Lula Nordeste (Santos Basin).
Eleven new offshore wells started-up in August in the Santos and Campos Basins and, along with them, 47 new wells have already gone into operation in 2014. With the arrival of the Pipe Laying Support Vessel (PLSV) NO 105, from McDermott, on August 30, the company’s fleet reached 15 vessels.
Increasing production in the pre-salt
Pre-salt production reached 532 thousand bpd in August. The higher daily production of 581 thousand barrels for the Santos and Campos Basins pre-salt was set on August 25. These volumes also include the share Petrobras operates for its partners, and was set following the start-up of well LL-28 on FPSO Cidade de Paraty, which increased the production of this unit to 95 thousand bpd, with three wells.
Maintenance shutdowns and New platforms
In compliance with the company’s maintenance schedule, some platforms underwent shutdowns in August, which led to the temporary suspension of 25 thousand bpd in average monthly production. Some of the units whose production was interrupted due to maintenance activities include P-56 at Marlim Sul field, and P-19 at Marlim field. These units have already resumed normal operations.
Natural gas production
Daily production of 71.022 million cubic meters of gas in August rose by 4% from the previous month’s production of 68.3 million m³/d. The gas production operated by Petrobras, which includes the share operated for its partner companies, reached 80.151 million m³/day, up 4.7% from July’s production of 76.6 million m³/day. In addition, the beginning of gas exports from P-62 on August 30 was set.
Production abroad totaled 208 thousand barrels of oil equivalent in August
Production abroad fell by 5.3% in August to 208 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in relation to the previous month’s production of 219.7 thousand boed.
Average oil production in August fell by 4.3% to 115 thousand barrels of oil per day (bpd), from the previous month’s production of 120.1 thousand bpd and average natural gas production abroad fell by 6.6% to 15.807 million m³/d, from the previous month’s production of 16.921 million m³/d.
These decreases are driven predominantly by lower gas and liquids (NGL and condensate) production at Lot 57, Kinteroni Field, Peru, stemming from lower demand for LNG exports from this country.
Production reported to the ANP
The total production reported to Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP) in August 2014 was 10,507,616.94 m³ of oil and 2,604,926.66 thousand m³ of gas. This production corresponds to the total production of the concessions where Petrobras is the operator. It does not include shale, NGL volumes and third parties’ production where Petrobras is not the operator.