Brazil oil production rose 0.8% in June from May to an average of 2.675 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d) as output from presalt offshore wells surpassed the combined volumes from all other fields in the country for the first time.
The production from the presalt oil areas jumped to 1.353 MMbbl/d on average in June, growing 6.4% from May, according to Brazil’s oil sector watchdog ANP.
Discovered only 10 years ago, this production area has rapidly become the top priority for Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras and other oil majors holding exploration rights to some of its large reserves.
The presalt field known as Lula, which holds per-well production rates higher than the industry average at around 25,000 barrels per unit, reached production of 763,000 bbl/d on average in June.
Lula is the largest presalt producing field in Brazil, operated by Petrobras (65%) in a consortium that includes Royal Dutch Shell Plc (25%) and Petróleos de Portugal SA (10%).
Petrobras accounted for 2.07 MMbbl/d on average of oil production in Brazil in June, with Shell in second place among large producers with 314,000 bbl/d. Repsol Sinopec was the third largest producer with 81,000 bbl/d.
ANP also said on July 31 that natural gas production reached 111 million cubic meters per day in June, 6.1% above May’s figures.
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