Brazil’s average oil and natural gas production retreated 11.95% in March from a record high in the previous month to 3.68 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), data from the ANP (National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) showed yesterday (17).
Compared to a year earlier, there was still a 3.75% drop.
Production in February had reached a record 4.18 million boed.
The average oil-only production in March also registered a significant drop of 12.76% compared to February and a retreat of 4.55% a year earlier to 2.846 million barrels per day (bpd).
The drop in Brazilian production in March occurred even though Brazil exported a historical volume of 11.31 million tonnes of oil in the same month, more than double compared to the same month in 2022, according to official federal government data.
It was not immediately clear whether exports were unscathed by the drop in production in March because of the large volumes produced in February.
The ANP has no comments on the numbers released on its website.
The advance in foreign sales in February occurred even after Brazil imposed an unprecedented tax on foreign petroleum sales on March 1, announced at the end of February, without oil companies having any leeway to reposition shipments.
Meanwhile, average natural gas production in the third month of the year fell 9.09% from February and was down 0.91% from March 2022 to 133.22 million cubic meters daily.
With information from Forbes