Petrobras: oil and gas production falls 2.1% in the fourth quarter

The total production of Petrobras in the fourth quarter of 2022 reached 2.64 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), a fall of 2.1% compared to the previous year, said the state company in a report released on Wednesday (8).

Concerning the immediate previous quarter, the result remained stable.

It was the last result of the company in Jair Bolsonaro‘s government.

The financial statement comes out on March 1st.

According to the document, the performance was mainly due to the ramp-up of production of the Guanabara platform (FPSO) and the start of production at P-71 and new wells in the Campos Basin.

This gain was partially affected by the higher volume of losses with maintenance and interventions, decommissioning of the Marlim platforms, divestments, and the assignment of a 5% stake in the production sharing contract for the surplus volumes of the onerous assignment of the Búzios Field to China’s CNOOC, in effect since the beginning of December.

In the pre-salt, there was a slight increase in production in the fourth quarter, to 1.63 million barrels per day (bpd), compared to 1.60 million bpd in the same period of 2021.

Compared with the third quarter of 2022, there was a high of 1.9%.

DERIVATIVES

According to the oil company, derivatives sales in the fourth quarter aligned with the previous period, “reflecting higher gasoline and QAV (aviation kerosene) sales and reduction in other derivatives”.

The 10.4% increase in gasoline sales over the third quarter “occurred due to seasonal consumption and the derivative’s greater competitiveness,” informed the state-run company.

In the annual comparison, however, there was a 3.5% drop.

In the segment of QAV, the sales growth is due to recovery from the impact of covid-19, said Petrobras.

“The reduction in sales of other derivatives in the fourth quarter is mainly due to the seasonality of diesel consumption and the sale of additional quantities of naphtha in the third quarter of 2022″.

Diesel sales volumes fell 2.7% year-on-year and 1.9% compared to the immediately preceding quarter, to 769,000 bpd, due to “the seasonality of consumption, higher in the third quarter,” the company reports.

“Additionally, the divestment of REMAN, completed in November 2022, also impacted the sales evolution between quarters,” it added.

With information from Bloomberg