MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras sets a new oil and gas production record during September

Pre-salt output reached 532,000 bpd and 618,000 barrels on September 18th, setting a new record for daily exploration in that reserve

Petrobras announced a new oil output record in Brazil, during September with an average of 2.23 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) production in the country, including in this total the fields operated by the state-owned company for its partners. The volume is 0.3% higher than breaks August record.

The result was driven mainly by the increase in output of platforms P-55 and P-62, in Campos Basin’s Roncador field, and in Cidade de Paraty, at Lula Nordeste field, in Santos Basin. Five new offshore wells initiated operations in both basins.

Likewise the pre-salt output reached 532,000 bpd and with the 618,000 barrels produced on September 18th, Petrobras set a new record for daily exploration in the pre-salt layer.

Petrobras’ gas output during September was 80.13 million cubic meters per day (m³/d), considering only the output operated by the state-owned company for its partners. Finally total oil and gas output in Brazil and abroad, was 2.8 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The Brazilian multinational energy giant is one of the largest companies in Latin America by annual sales revenue. Its operations account for a large majority of the total oil and gas production in Brazil. Last year, Petrobras’ average daily oil production in Brazil was 1,931.4 thousand barrels per day, an estimated 90.9% of Brazil’s total oil production.

Petrobras’ upstream production is expected to grow significantly in the coming years as it continues to develop its pre-salt reserves. The expression “pre-salt” refers to an aggregation of rocks that hold hydrocarbon reserves and are located in ultra-deep waters in a large portion of the Brazilian coast. It is called pre-salt because the rock interval ranges under an extensive layer of salt, which can be as much as 2,000 meters thick. The term “pre” is used because these rocks were deposited before the salt layer. The total depth of these rocks can be as much as 7,000 meters from the surface of the sea.