Brazil natural gas output up 5% in 2021, sets new record

Brazil produced a record amount of natural gas in 2021, up five percent from 2020, national oil and gas authority ANP reported today (Feb. 2). Oil, however, was down 1.18 percent.

The natural gas produced daily in the country’s wells last year averaged at 134 million cubic meters. In 2020, the average stood at 127 million cubic meters a day. Oil, in turn, saw its output drop from 2.940 million in 2020 to 2.905 million barrels per day.

The report further states the fields operated by Petrobras accounted for 93 percent of the country’s production of oil and gas in December.

Pre-salt

The survey also states that 133 wells active in Brazil’s pre-salt exploration accounted for 73.8 percent of all oil and gas produced in the country. In these wells, the growth in production for December was up 11.5 percent from the same period in 2020, but 0.2 percent down from November 2021.

The use of the natural gas extracted from the wells in December was 97.5 percent, the agency reported. The amount made available to the market stood at 54.4 million cubic meters a day, whereas the gas burnt was 3.3 million cubic meters a day. The amount burnt was 12.12 percent lower than the previous month and 9.2 percent higher than the same month in 2020.

ANP noted that the Tupi field, in the pre-salt layer of the Santos basin, was the country’s biggest oil and natural gas producer, whereas platform Petrobras 70, in the Búzios field, was the facility with the highest oil production. FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) unit Cidade de Itaguaí, in the Tupi field, had the largest natural gas output.

In December, the maritime fields produced 98 percent of Brazil’s oil and 84.4 percent of the country’s natural gas.