MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras establishes new oil production record in January

Petrobras average oil and gas production in Brazil during January climbed to 2,219,165 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe), 4.8% more than a year ago and up 0.7% over December 2008. Oil from domestic fields was 1,922,946 barrels/day, setting a monthly record, 5.3% above the mark set a year earlier and 2.5% more than the December volume.

The previous monthly record, set in September 2008, was 1,897,563 barrels per day, according to a release from the corporation. The 47,000 barrel-per-day difference was attributed to the Campos Basin with production going on stream at platform P-51 (at the Marlim Sul field) plus the increased volume pumped by P-53 and new wells from the Marlim field. Considering Petrobras' fields in Brazil and abroad, the total oil and natural gas production last January reached 2,434,121 boe. This was 3.8% more than in January 2008 and the same as the total volume extracted last December. The volume of oil and natural gas coming from the eight countries where Petrobras has production assets, in barrels of oil equivalent, reached 214,956 barrels per day, a 7.3% compared to the previous month, and 5.3% below the January 2008 production mark. Natural gas production in domestic fields topped-out at 47.095 million cubic meters per day in January. This was 9.9% less than the total lifted in December 2008, keeping pace with the reduced domestic demand in the month. Natural gas production abroad, meanwhile, was 15.762 million cubic meters per day, below the 17.062 million cubic meters produced in December 2008. The international variation resulted from decreased production in Bolivia due to the lower demand on the Bolivia-Brazil Gas Pipeline, and from operating issues at the Coulomb field, in the United States.