From Agência Brasil*
Rio de Janeiro – Although production in Brazilian oil fields recorded a poorer performance in May, the Petrobras attained a new record high in daily oil production at the Espírito Santo Basin, in the southeastern Brazilian state of the same name – the state is the second largest oil province in Brazil, second only to the Campos Basin, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, which is the largest producer region.
Last Friday (15), the new record at the Espírito Santo Basin was obtained at a daily extraction of 141,700 barrels. This, according to Petrobras, is an expressive volume when compared with the average for the month of May (99,100 barrels/day), which had already been 5.7% higher than the average for April (93,700 barrels/day).
The record high in Espírito Santo is mostly due to the good performance of the P-34 platform, in the Jubarte Field, which reached a production of 60,000 barrels per day, its maximum capacity.
Despite the results achieved in the Espírito Santo Basin, total production by Petrobras, in Brazil and abroad, for oil and natural gas was 1% lower than recroded in April. The figures show that last month, in domestic and foreign fields, 2,269,503 barrels of oil and natural gas were produced per day.
Counting production in Brazilian fields alone, extraction of oil and gas reached 2,024,327 of equivalent oil – a volume that is also 1% lower than the average for April.
Considering only oil production in Brazilian fields, the daily average for May was 1,761,432 barrels, remaining at the average consumption level for oil derivatives, and 11,000 above the daily demand for 2006. The production of natural gas in Brazil reached, on average, 41.8 million cubic metres per day, remaining stable in comparison with the previous month.
According to Petrobras, the 1% decrease in production – a difference of 17,400 barrels compared with the average for April – occurred due to the transfer for May of scheduled interruptions in platforms at the Campos Basin, which were previously scheduled for February.
In addition to the scheduled interruptions in the Campos Basin, there were operational problems offshore in the northeastern Brazilian state of Sergipe, where the pipe that links the fields of Guaricema and Dourado to the ground ruptured, and there were also problems with the gas compressor installed at the P-34 platform. "The energy generator that feeds the compressor malfunctioned, and without the compressor it is not possible to extract petroleum," the Brazilian state-owned oil company informed.
Also contributing negatively to the result were technical problems affecting the production in the Sheillan ship, which is a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform.
The Petrobras reaffirmed that, as the platforms P-52 and P-54 (Roncador Field, in the Campos Basin) and the platform at the Piranema Field (Sergipe-Alagoas Basin) become operational in the second half of the year, oil production by Petrobras should reach 2 million barrels per day by the end of the year.
For June, according to the state-owned company, a significant increase in oil production is ensured, as new wells will enter operation, and the problems that occurred in May will be overcome.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
