Petrobras reaches new pre-salt records

July 17, 2017

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras reached two new records in its production from the pre-salt layer in June.

The state-owned company reported on Monday that its total oil and natural gas production in June was 2.81 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), of which 2.70 million boed produced in Brazil and 113 thousand boed produced abroad.

The average oil production in Brazil was 2.20 million barrels per day (bpd), a volume 0.6% higher than in May. The company explained that this result was due mainly to the return to production after scheduled stoppage of platform P-43, in the Barracuda and Caratinga fields, in Campos Basin, and FPSO Cidade de Mangaratiba, in the Lula field, in Santos Basin’s pre-salt.

In June, natural gas production in Brazil, excluding the liquefied volume, was 80.3 million m³/d, 1.8% above the previous month. The company stated that this increase was due mainly to the return to production of FPSO Cidade de Mangaratiba.

New records in pre-salt production

In June, oil production operated by Petrobras, which includes own share and partners, in the pre-salt layer, hit two new records: the monthly record, at 1.35 million bpd, and the daily record, achieved on June 19, at 1.42 million barrels. In addition, operated oil and natural gas production reached the new record of 1.69 million boed.

These results are due mainly to the production start at platform P-66, in the Lula field, and the entry into production of new producer wells throughout 2017 on FPSOs Cidade de Caraguatatuba, Cidade of Ilhabela, Cidade de Maricá, Cidade de Mangaratiba and Cidade de Saquarema – all of them installed in Santos Basin.

Oil and natural gas production abroad

In June, oil production in overseas fields was at 65 thousand bpd, a volume 0.1% higher than the previous month.

Natural gas production was 8.1 million m³/d, 13% below the volume produced in May 2017. This reduction was mainly the result of lower demand for gas production in Bolivia and production drop in the Hadrian South field, in the USA.