MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras September oil-gas production sets new record

Brazil's government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras set a new production record in September with 1.897.563 barrels/day, surpassing the volume extracted in the previous month by 12.400 barrels, or 1%. Compared to a year ago, the increase was 7.26%.

Natural gas production in Brazil was up 24% over last year, but remained at the same level as in August 2008. These figures refer to Petrobras gas and crude production in Brazil. However if volumes extracted in the other nine countries where Petrobras has operations are added the total September daily oil and gas production has reached 2.450.610 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE). This represents a 7.6% growth over September 2007, and is stable compared to the previous month's mark. Petrobras' total exclusive oil production (Brazil and abroad) was 2,023,413 barrels/day, 6.6% more than a year ago and 0.7% higher than in August. Joint production of oil and gas in barrel equivalents abroad reached 222.909 BOE/day, during September which is stable compared to the previous month. Of this total, 208.411 BOE/day came from companies Petrobras controls, while 14.498 BOE/day from associated companies. Exclusive oil production in the fields abroad was 124.850 barrels per day, also at the same level as in August. Meanwhile Petrobras production in the Agbami field, in Nigeria, where the company operates in partnership with other companiess kicked-off in September and reached 8,667 barrels/day. In addition to Agbami, the Akpo field is also in development phase. Petrobras' share in these two giant fields is expected to reach 65.200 barrels/day. Increased production in Nigeria compensated for the fall experienced in the United States caused by the preventive shutdown of operations on account of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.