MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras pumps new oil record in Brazil: 2.23 million bpd

In its end of the year summing up Brazil's government managed oil corporation Petrobras announced Wednesday it has set another daily oil-production record in Brazil: 2.238,000 barrels, a mark only eight companies in the world have reached.

The result was celebrated in a ceremony attended by Petrobras CEO José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, Exploration & Production director Guilherme Estrella, Service director Renato Duque, and International director, Nestor Cerveró, in addition to executive managers José AntÃÂÂ'nio de Figueiredo (E&P/South-Southeast), and Solange da Silva Guedes (E&P/North-Northeast), among others. "The daily production record, above 2 million barrels of oil per day, is an absolutely extraordinary feat. This mark puts Petrobras among the world's biggest companies. We have now surpassed the self-sufficiency level that is fundamental to Brazil. The P-54 rig going online is a synthesis of all the team's efforts", said director Guilherme Estrella. Petrobras top officials on Tuesday visited the P-54 plant to uncover a plate celebrating the record and the beginning of oil extraction at the Roncador 63 well. To achieve the over two million bpd mark in 2007 Petrobras had six new platforms online and, at peak production, they will add 590.000 bpd to the current installed capacity in Brazilian fields. The previous record had been set on October 23 2006, at 1,912,000 barrels. Platform P-54, which kicked production off on December 11 in the Roncador field belonging to the Campos Basin (RJ), was the latest of the six units to go online this year. At top production, foreseen for the second half of 2008, it will add 180,000 bpd to domestic production. Last November, the company had already started operating two other large production units: P-52, also in the Roncador field and with similar production capacity as the P-54; and FPSO Cidade de Vitória, installed in November in the Golfinho field, Espírito Santo Basin, capable of lifting 100.000 bpd. In addition to these three units, the FPSO Cidade do Rio de Janeiro went online in January, capable of lifting 100,000 bpd in the Espadarte field, Campos Basin; the Manati platform, in the field of the same name, in Bahia, capable of producing up to 6,000,000 cubic meters of gas per day; and, in October, the Piranema platform, with capacity to lift 30,000 bpd of light oil, off the Sergipe coast. Although more than 80% of the oil Petrobras produces in Brazil comes from offshore fields, onshore production also plays an important role. The average onshore field production has hovered over 230.000 bpd, a volume that has been sustained in the past few years with new technologies to increase mature field useful lives. For 2008 Petrobras is planning to put on line three new oil and one gas platforms: P-51, in the Marlim Sul field, capable of lifting 180.000 bpd; the P-53, in Marlim Leste, also designed to lift 180.000 bpd, and FPSO Cidade de Niterói, in the Marlim Leste field (Campos Basin), at 100.000 bpd. And, finally, there is also the FPSO Cidade de São Mateus, which will lift gas from the Camarupim field (Espírito Santo Basin) and was designed to produce 10,000,000 m3 per day. P-51 is the first platform to be built entirely in Brazil.