Petrobras Breaks Oil Production Records in Brazil

Petrobras states that in December it reached three new records in Brazil for monthly, annual and daily oil production averages.

The monthly average for December will be approximately 2,120 thousand barrels a day, against the previous record from April at 2,033 thousand barrels. The volume produced over the month is 4.4% higher than the production achieved in November this year (2,030 thousand bpd).

In addition to the monthly record, the Company recorded yet another daily record. On December 27th, the oil production reached 2,256 thousand barrels. With such results, the Company closes 2010 at production level over 2 million barrels a day (2,003 thousand bpd), which also represents a new annual record.

This performance was mainly due to five new wells coming online at the Campos Basin in December: CHT-9 and BFR-3, at Cachalote and Baleia Franca fields, both interconnected to FPSO Capixaba; wells JUB-9 and JUB-14, which produce connected to the newly installed P-57 platform, at the Jubarte field; and CRT-43, which was given the working name Carimbé and is a producer well nestled at the pre-salt layer of Caratinga field, which is connected to platform P-48.

With the aggregate contribution of the five wells, it was possible to add more than 100,000 barrels per day to Petrobras’ production in Brazil. Furthermore, it is important to point out the high level of operational efficiency achieved in the month by the Stationary Production Units (SPU) of all operating units.

The good performance of fields located in mature areas in Northern and Northeastern Brazil and in the state of Espírito Santo also contributed to such outcomes. These fields, where production had been declining in recent years, managed to maintain an average production of around 213,000 barrels of oil per day in 2010 thanks to the revitalization effort undertaken by Petrobras.

Another highlight was production being kicked-off at well SPS-55, which initiated the Extended Well Test in the Guará area, in the Santos Basin pre-salt layer.

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Source: Petrobras, January 3, 2011;