Petrobras reports $360M loss. Pre-salt production up

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras posted net loss for the first quarter of 2016. The net loss was 1.25 billion Brazilian reals ($360 million)

The company said several factors contributed to the result: higher interest costs, and negative monetary and exchange rate variations; 7% reduction in oil and natural gas production (in Brazil and abroad); 8% decline in sales of oil products in the domestic market; an increase in depreciation costs; and higher spending on idle equipment, especially drilling rigs.

Petrobras’ total output of oil and natural gas amounted to 2,616,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), down 7% from from the first quarter of 2015.

In the pre-salt layer, oil production operated by Petrobras totaled 859,000 barrels per day (bpd), up 29% from 1Q15, while production of oil and natural gas has remained above 1 million boed since July 2015.