Petrobras celebrates daily production record of more than 2 million barrels per day

Petrobras announced it has set another daily oil-production record in Brazil: 2,000,238 barrels, a mark only eight companies in the world have reached. The result was celebrated in a ceremony attended by president José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, Exploration & Production director Guilherme Estrella, Service director Renato Duque, and International director, Nestor Cerveró, in addition to executive managers José Antônio de Figueiredo (E&P/South-Southeast), and Solange da Silva Guedes (E&P/North-Northeast), among others.

“The daily production record, at upwards of 2 million barrels of oil per day, is an absolutely extraordinary feat. This mark puts Petrobras among the world’s biggest companies. We have now surpassed the self-sufficiency level that is fundamental to Brazil. The P-54 going online is a synthesis of all of the work team’s efforts, as they have always worked with a lot of dedication and love for the company,” said director Guilherme Estrella.

During the visit made to the P-54 plant yesterday (12/25), Estrella, together with the executive managers, uncovered the plate that celebrated the record and opened the Roncador 63 well, lifting its first oil.

To achieve this mark, in 2007 alone six new platforms went online and, at peak production, they will add 590,000 barrels to the installed capacity (maximum lifting capacity the units were designed for) in Brazilian fields. The previous record had been set on October 23 2006, at 1,912,000 barrels.

Platform P-54, which kicked production off on December 11 in the Roncador field, in the Campos Basin (RJ), was the latest of the six units to go online this year. At top production, foreseen for the second half of 2008, it will add 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) to domestic production.

Last November, the company had already started operating two other large production units: P-52, also in the Roncador field and with the same total production capacity as the P-54; and FPSO Cidade de Vitória, installed in November in the Golfinho field, Espírito Santo Basin, capable of lifting 100,000 bpd.

In addition to these three units, the FPSO Cidade do Rio de Janeiro went online in January, capable of lifting 100,000 bpd in the Espadarte field, in the Campos Basin; the Manati platform, in the field of the same name, in Bahia, capable of producing up to 6,000,000 cubic meters of gas per day; and, in October, the Piranema platform, with capacity to lift 30,000 bpd of light oil, off the Sergipe coast.

Onshore production revitalization

Although more than 80% of the oil Petrobras produces in Brazil comes from offshore fields, onshore production has an important role too. The average onshore field production has hovered over 230,000 barrels per day, a volume that has been being maintained in the past few years thanks to the new technologies the company has been developing to increase mature field useful lives. Furthermore, the company is foreseeing considerable onshore production growth in the upcoming years.

Four new platforms

The pace at which new oil production systems are going online in the company’s portfolio will continue intense in 2008. Three new oil platforms and one gas platform are scheduled for deployment: the P-51, in the Marlim Sul field, capable of lifting 180,000 bpd; the P-53, in Marlim Leste, also designed to lift 180,000 bpd, and FPSO Cidade de Niterói, in the Marlim Leste field (Campos Basin), at 100,000 bpd. And, finally, there is also the FPSO Cidade de São Mateus, which will lift gas from the Camarupim field (Espírito Santo Basin) and was designed to produce 10,000,000 m3 per day. It must also be emphasized that the P-51 is the first platform built entirely in Brazil.