Gov’t slice of oil production in sharing regime sees new record in May

The average production of oil under Brazil’s sharing regime stood at 819 thousand barrels per day (bpd) in May. The government’s share in the total reached a record 45.7 thousand bpd—up 32 percent from the previous month.

In the sharing regime, contractors must set aside a portion of the extracted oil for the government. The fields covered are located within the pre-salt polygon and in areas with low exploratory risk and high potential for production.

The latest monthly figures cover seven contracts. The fields with the highest outputs in the month were Búzios (398 thousand bpd), Mero (208 thousand), Sépia (99 thousand), Atapu (78 thousand), Itapu (25 thousand), Sapinhoá (7 thousand), and Sudoeste de Tartaruga Verde (3 thousand). The overall result was six percent higher than in April.

From 2017 to May 2023, the amount reached 463.7 million barrels of oil—27.4 million for the government.

Natural gas

In May, the extraction of natural gas with commercial use added up to 2.4 million m³/day for three contracts. Most came from the Búzios field (2.2 million m³/day). Compared to the previous month, the result was 20 percent higher. This was mainly due to the return of gas exports from Búzios’s P-77 after a maintenance break.

The government’s average for natural gas was 143 thousand m³/day. Most of this volume stemmed from the Entorno de Sapinhoá field (111 thousand m³/day) and Búzios (32 thousand m³/day). The numbers were eight percent above those recorded in April.

Since 2017, natural gas production has totaled 1.2 billion m³, with 164.4 million m³ for the government.