Brazil's petroleum production hits new record

The oil and natural gas production in domestic fields hit a new record in August, when the amount extracted totaled 3.29 million barrels of oil (petroleum and gas) per day, higher than the previous record established on July 2016—3.21 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Records were established and production increased in the various bases of comparison in August, according to data released today (Oct. 4) by the National Petroleum Agency (ANP).

Separately, oil production reached approximately 2.609 million barrels per day, up 1.1% compared with the 2.581 million produced in July, the third consecutive record in oil extraction. It was also 2.4% higher than in August last year.

The natural gas production reached 108.8 million m3 per day, beating the previous record of 107.2 million established in July this year. Compared with August last year, production in August 2016 increased 9.6%.

Pre-salt

The oil and natural gas in 65 pre-salt fields ended August producing about 1.365 million of oil equivalent, up 3.6% compared to the record production in July (1.317 million).

Of this total, 1.099 million barrels refer to the daily production of oil, which surpassed the 1.066 million produced in July. And 42.2 million m3 per day of natural gas were produced, which also surpassed the 40.8 m3 per day last July.

Producing fields

The offshore fields accounted for almost all the country's oil and natural gas, equivalent to 94.4% of oil production and 77.1% of natural gas extraction. The oil was produced in 8,792 on wells, 781 on the sea, and on the land 8,011.

Data also show that the fields operated by Petrobras produced 93.4% of the country's oil and natural gas. Lula field in the pre-salt Santos Basin was once again the largest producer of oil and natural gas, reaching a daily average production of 581,900 barrels of oil and 25.5 million m3 per day of natural gas.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta