Only one local company among Brazil’s top oil and gas producers in May

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Petrobras was the only Brazilian company to rank among the top 10 Brazilian hydrocarbon producers in May, according to the latest monthly report from Brazilian regulator ANP.

The last time this was the case was in March 2020. Since then, the ranking has always included at least two and up to three local companies, including Eneva, Prio (formerly PetroRio), Enauta, and Barra Energia.

By far the country’s largest producer, state-owned Petrobras, delivered 2.56 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboe/d) in May, including 1.98 Mb/d of oil and 93.3 million cubic meters of natural gas per day (Mm3/d).

It was followed by Shell (434,086boe/d), TotalEnergies (140,477boe/d), Petrogal (121,795boe/d), Repsol Sinopec (85,011boe/d), Petronas (69,652boe/d), Equinor (36,466boe/d), CNODC (36,199boe/d), CNOOC (36,199boe/d) and Trident Energy (24,288boe/d).

London-based Trident nearly tripled its production in March to 8,679 boe/d.

The company operates the Pampo and Enchova poles in the Campos Basin, which it acquired from Petrobras in 2019.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies CNODC and CNOOC have managed to increase their production from less than 10,000 boe/d to more than 36,000 boe/d since the last quarter of 2021.

Both companies are partners with Petrobras in the Mero and Búzios fields, located in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin.

Domestic production in May was 2.88 Mb/d of crude oil and 132 million m3/d of natural gas, totaling 3.71 million boe/d.

Oil production decreased 4% from April and 1.8% year-on-year, while natural gas production decreased 3.8% from the previous month and 2.1% from the same period in 2021.

Of the total, offshore fields accounted for 97.3% and pre-salt facilities 76.5%.

Natural gas utilization was 96.5%. About 46.3 million m3/day was made available to the market, while gas flaring reached 4.5 million m3/day during the month. The remainder was reinjected to enhance oil recovery.

The Tupi field in the Santos pre-salt basin was the largest oil and gas producer, with a volume of 776 Mb/day or 36.6 m3/day.

The Carioca FPSO (pictured), installed in the Sépia and Sépia Leste fields, produced 165.478b/d of oil and was the plant with the largest crude oil input.