Average production of oil and natural gas by Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras in the country, in April, was 2.157 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, growth of 2% in comparison with March and of 5.1% compared with April last year. This was the first increase after three consecutive months of reduction.
The data were taken from a press release issued yesterday (14th) by Petrobras and indicate that oil production in domestic fields recorded growth of 3.6% in comparison with April 2007 and 2.3% compared with the previous month.
Average daily production of natural gas reached 50.64 million cubic meters in April, growth of 15.4% over the 43.375 million cubic meters produced in April 2007.
Information supplied by Petrobras indicates that the result of an additional 42,000 barrels of oil per day in April was enabled by the entry into operation of new wells in the Campos Basin – at platforms P-52 and P-54, both in the Roncador field; at P-35, in Marlim; and at PPM-1, in Pampo.
Another contributing factor was production at the FPSO Cidade de Rio das Ostras platform (a unit for production, storage and outflow of oil and gas), which became active on March 31st, in the field of Badejo, also at the Campos Basin.
According to the company, the daily production capacity of Petrobras should increase by 500,000 barrels in 2008, "with the entry into operation of four other platforms – three of them in the Campos Basin, and one offshore in the state of Espírito Santo (SE Brazil)."
Considering the state-controlled company's fields in Brazil and abroad, the data disclosed indicate that total oil and natural gas production by Petrobras reached, in April this year, a daily average of 2.381 million barrels of oil – a result 3.7% greater than production recorded in the same month of 2007 and 1.8% greater than the total production of Petrobras in March 2008.
Taking into account only the production of Petrobras in the eight countries where the company has extraction operations, the volume of oil and natural gas, in barrels of oil equivalent, reached 223,819 barrels per day in April.
ABr