Petrobras oil and gas production declines in Q2

Petrobras recorded a 0.5% drop in oil and NGL production in Brazil in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. In addition, the company reduced its target for the year amid asset sales, reduced production in mature fields, and ongoing maintenance, despite a 17% increase in key pre-salt areas.

In its production and sales report, the oil company reported domestic production of 2.05m barrels of oil and NGL per day between April and June. The amount, however, was 4.1% higher than the first three months of this year.

Total oil, NGL, and natural gas production totaled 2.63m barrels of oil equivalent/day (bbl/d), up 3.8% from the first quarter, but down 1% year-on-year.

“Despite the increase in production compared to the first quarter, the results were lower than initially expected,” said the company, pointing to a review of its production goals.

Despite the entry of seven new production systems in 2018 and 2019, in the pre-salt Buzios and Lula fields, and the post-salt Turtle Green fields, Petrobras had almost stable production compared to last year.

This is mainly due to the sale of 25% of the Roncador field and Petrobras America’s assets, the effect of which resulted in a 72,000 bbl/d production reduction, maintenance shutdowns, and declining production of mature after-salt fields. .

Petrobras also reiterated the forecast of the P-68 platform for 2019 and the P-70 unit for 2020 to go into production.

Refining

In the refining area, processed cargo reached 1.7m barrels per day, down 5.7% over the same period last year and up 2% over the first quarter.

The Petrobras report also provided sales data, pointing to a decrease in gasoline sales in the Brazilian market in both quarterly and annual comparisons.

The state-owned company sold 367,000 barrels per day of gasoline in the second quarter, down 4.7% from January to March and 12.4% compared to the same quarter of 2018.

“Sales in the Brazilian market in the quarter were lower than in the first quarter due to the increased competitiveness of hydrous ethanol against gasoline, due to the beginning of the south-central sugarcane crop, which results in lower ethanol prices, favoring its consumption in some states,” said the company.

Source: Reuters

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