The oil and natural gas production of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras, the country’s largest company, fell 5.1% in the second quarter compared to the first three months of the year, with an average of 2.61 million barrels of oil equivalent, the company informed today.
In a statement, Petrobras assured that production contracted 5% compared to the same period last year. The drop in production was attributed to some platforms’ divestment of assets and shutdowns.
Oil-only production between April and June averaged 2.11 million barrels per day, down 5.2% from the first quarter and 5% below the second quarter of last year.
In deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean under an extensive layer of salt, total production in the pre-salt area was 1.94 million barrels per day, representing 73% of the company’s total production.
According to Petrobras, sales of oil and derivatives in the domestic market reached 1.71 million barrels per day in the second quarter, 1% more than in the first quarter but 2.4 percent less than in the same period last year.
Petrobras reported that the volume of diesel sold was down 8% compared to a year ago, at 750,000 barrels per day, while the volume of gasoline contracted 2.8% in the same comparison, to 375,000 barrels per day.
Diesel sales were down 5.3% compared to the first six months of last year, attributed by the company to the sale of a refinery in Bahia state in the Northeast.
With information from Xinhua