MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras oil and gas production: 2.1 million bpd in March

Petrobras, Brazil's government managed hydrocarbons corporation, increased oil and gas production an average 1.4% during March reaching 2,114,089 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe).

However compared to February's 2,129,420 boe/day there was a slight 0.7% decrease caused by scheduled maintenance shutdowns at two platforms in the Campos Basin. But Petrobras is hopeful that five more platforms will be going online in 2008 adding 500,000 barrels to daily production capacity: four in the Campos Basin and one off Espírito Santo. Furthermore five platforms that begun production in 2007 are also expected to reach full capacity in this year. Regarding domestic oil production equivalent to 1,800,431 barrels/day, there was a slight 1.2% decrease compared to February. The difference can be attributed to scheduled shutdowns at platform PPM-1 and P-20, at the Pampo and Marlim fields. Losses were partially compensated by three wells that started producing, interconnected to platform P-52, in the Roncador field. Taking into consideration all fields in Brazil and abroad, Petrobras total oil and natural gas production in March averaged 2,339,006 barrels of oil equivalent per day, 1% more than Petrobras' total production in March 2007. Oil and natural gas production from the eight countries where Petrobras has production assets reached 224,917 barrels/day in March, 1% more than the previous month. Natural gas production in domestic fields reached 49.868.000 cubic meters/day, 14.2% more than a year ago and 1.9% above February's mark.