RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil produced a record volume of natural gas in 2021, with a 5% increase over the 2020 production, informed yesterday (3), in Rio de Janeiro, the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP). Oil production, on the other hand, had a drop of 1.18% compared to 2020.
The total amount of natural gas produced in the country’s wells per day last year reached an average of 134 million cubic meters. In 2020, the average productivity was 127 million cubic meters per day (MMm³/d). In the case of oil, production fell from 2.940 million barrels per day in 2020 to 2.905 million barrels per day in 2021.
The data are part of the ANP’s Monthly Bulletin of Oil and Natural Gas Production for December 2021, released on Thursday. When considering only the last month of last year, the oil production fell 0.5% compared to November, while the natural gas production decreased 3.2%. Comparing December 2021 with December 2020, both grew 4.1%.
The regulatory agency’s bulletin also informed that the fields operated by Petrobras were responsible for 93% of the national production of oil and gas in December.
PRE-SALT
Another fact highlighted is that the 133 wells in activity in the pre-salt accounted for 73.8% of all the oil and gas produced in Brazil. In these wells, production growth in December, compared to 2020, reached 11.5%, while compared to November 2021, there was a drop of 0.2%.
The use of the natural gas extracted from the wells in December was 97.5%, according to the ANP. 54.4 MMm³/day were made available to the market, while the gas flaring was 3.3 MMm³/d. The amount flared was 12.12% lower compared to the previous month and 9.2% higher compared to the same month in 2020.
The ANP highlighted that the Tupi field in the Santos Basin pre-salt was the country’s biggest oil and natural gas producer. The FPSO Cidade de Itaguaí platform vessel in the Tupi field had the most increased natural gas production. In contrast, the Petrobras 70 platform in the Búzios field was the facility with the highest oil production.
The offshore fields produced 97% of the country’s oil and 84.4% of its natural gas in December.