São Paulo – The National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuel Agency (ANP) announced this Thursday (31st) that there has been a sharp decline in the volume of natural gas burnt in oil production in Brazil. In February, an average of 4.8 million cubic meters was burnt each day, the lowest amount since April 2008.
According to the agency, the volume burnt was 42.1% lower than in February 2010 and 20.4% lower than in January of this year. The total amount of gas burnt last month was due to production (84.9%) and extended tests (15.1%) at oilfields.
Brazil produced an average of 2.062 million barrels of oil per day in February, a 2.3% increase compared with the same month of 2010, but a 2.8% decline over January 2011.
As for natural gas, production reached 62 million cubic meters per day, 3.2% more than in February last year and 5.2% less than in January this year.
According to the ANP, the main reasons for the decline in production last month were the temporary suspension of operations at three offshore rigs and a gas pipeline in the country.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
