Oil Production Grows 2.8 Percent from February to March

By Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Oil production in Brazil grew 2.8 percent from February to March, according to the monthly bulletin of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).

In total, 2.56 million barrels of oil were produced per day. Compared to March 2018, there was also an increase, although modest, of 0.1 percent.

Of this total, 1.54 million barrels were produced from oil removed from the pre-salt layer, representing 60.15 percent of national production. The result is 6 percent higher than that recorded in February of this year and 11 percent higher than that recorded in March of last year.

In relation to natural gas, national production reached 111 million cubic meters per day, 1.2 percent more than in February and 4.2 percent more than in March 2018. In regard to pre-salt alone, 62.7 million cubic meters were produced per day, 56.49 percent of the total.

The use of natural gas in Brazil reached 94.7 percent of total production. Gas burning totaled 5.9 million cubic meters per day.

By adding gas and oil, Brazil produced 3.26 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The main production fields were Lula, in the Santos Basin, which produced, on a daily average, 909.000 barrels of oil (35.5 percent of the national total) and 38 million cubic meters of gas (34.23 percent of the country’s production).

The fields operated by Petrobras were responsible for 94.9 percent of Brazil’s total oil and natural gas production.