Petrobras’ 2015 oil production exceeds target levels

Brazilian oil company Petrobras has announced that the average Brazilian oil production in 2015 exceeded the annual target established in the Company’s Business and Management Plan for the first time in 13 years.

The period average of 2.128 million barrels per day (bpd) was 4.6% higher than the previous year and 0.15% up on the 2.125 million bpd envisaged in the business plan.

Pre-salt production averaged 767,000 bpd, 56% more than in 2014 and the company’s highest ever figure.

Factoring in natural gas output, which grew by 9.8% over the year before, total production reached 2.6 million barrels of oil equivalent (boed) per day, 5.5% more than the 2.46 million boed recorded in 2014.

According to Petrobras’ CEO, Aldemir Bendine, “this result is important as it demonstrates the company’s enormous operating capacity, even in an adverse global scenario for the oil and gas industry, and because it exemplifies the predictability and transparency of its activities before the market.”

Bendine emphasized that “the result reinforces our conviction in the decision to prioritize investments that are effectively capable of generating results, with absolute priority for exploration and production projects.”

The growth of production from the P-58 platform, which operates in the Parque das Baleias complex in the Espírito Santo portion of the Campos Basin, and the FPSO Cidade de Mangaratiba, in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin, were among the factors chiefly responsible for last year’s output expansion. Further impetus came from the anticipation (from November to July) of the start-up of the FPSO Cidade de Itaguaí, in the Santos Basin.

“We have consolidated our deepwater and ultra deepwater exploration expertise. In 2015, we managed to reconcile technological progress with reduced operating costs, leading to a lifting cost of eight dollars per barrel in the pre-salt fields in the third quarter,” explained Solange Guedes, the company’s Exploration and Production Officer.

The satisfactory performance on other production fronts also played a decisive role in achieving the 2015 target,Petrobras said, exemplified by annual output from the Marlim field in the Campos Basin, which exceeded 200,000 bpd, and the Campo de Roncador field, which reached its highest ever volume of more than 400,000 bpd.