Brazil’s oil production grows 3.9% in May

Brazil’s oil and natural gas production in May of this year reached 4.234 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). According to the National Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels Agency (ANP), there was an increase in oil and natural gas production, as well as in pre-salt production. This announcement was made on Tuesday (Jul. 2) in Rio de Janeiro.

Regarding oil, 3.318 million barrels per day (bbl/d) were extracted, up 3.9 percent compared to the previous month and 3.6 percent compared to the same month in 2023.

Natural gas production in May stood at 145.63 million cubic meters per day (m³/d), marking an increase of 6.6 percent compared to April 2024 and 0.8 percent compared to May 2023.

In the pre-salt region, total production (oil + natural gas) reached 3.314 million boe/d, accounting for 78.3 percent of Brazil's overall production.

This figure represents an increase of 5 percent compared to the previous month and 3.7 percent compared to the same month in 2023. Production from 145 wells totaled 2.599 million bbl/d of oil and 113.73 million m³/d of natural gas.

Use of natural gas

In May, the use of natural gas stood at 97.6 percent. A total of 46.75 million m³/d were made available to the market, with flaring amounting to 3.55 million m³/d. This represented a 9.5 percent decrease in flaring compared to April and a 14.2 percent drop compared to May 2023.

Offshore fields in May accounted for 97.5 percent of oil production and 86.2 percent of natural gas production. The fields operated by Petrobras—alone or in consortium with other companies—accounted for 88.88 percent of the total production. A total of 6,549 wells contributed to production, including 504 offshore and 6,045 onshore.