Brazilian state-owned oil giant Petrobras has set two new records with oil production at the pre-salt layer.
The company’s total oil and natural gas production in January was 2.86 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), of which 2.74 million boed were produced in Brazil and 0.12 million boed abroad.
The average oil production in the country was 2.23 million barrels per day (bpd), 3% lower than December, 2016. This result was mainly due to the scheduled stoppage of platform P-40 , located in the Marlim Sul field, and to maintenance in one of the producing wells in FPSO Cidade de Anchieta , located in Parque das Baleias, both in Campos Basin.
In January, the natural gas production in Brazil, excluding the liquefied volume, was 81.4 million m³/d, in line with the production of December, 2016.
Pre-salt production reaches new daily & monthly records
In January, oil production operated by Petrobras, wholly-owned and partner shares, at the pre-salt layer achieved two new records, namely, the 1.28-million-bpd monthly production record and the 1.34-million-barrel daily production record achieved on Jan. 4. It is also worth noting that oil and natural gas production operated by Petrobras reached a new record of 1.59 million boed, the company added.
Those results are mainly due to production increase in the new wells interconnected to the FPSOs Cidade de Caraguatatuba (in the Lapa field); Cidade de Saquarema , Cidade de Mangaratiba , and Cidade de Itaguaí (located in the Lula field); and Cidade de São Paulo (in the Sapinhoá field); all in Santos Basin.
According to Petrobras, another highlight was the higher operating performance at platform P-58 , located in Parque das Baleias, in Campos Basin.
Oil and gas production abroad
In January, oil production in fields abroad reached 69 thousand bpd, a volume 13% higher than in the previous month. This increase was particularly due to resumed operations in the Agbami field, in Nigeria, after a scheduled stoppage that took place in December.
Natural gas production was 8.6 million m³/d, 16% lower than the volume produced in the previous month. This decrease occurred mostly because of the demand reduction for the gas from Bolivia.