Petrobras’ oil and gas production in Brazil up 9.5%

Petrobras’ average oil and gas production in Brazil, in March, topped out at 2,315,276 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), 9.5% more than a year ago and 3% above last month’s mark. The exclusive domestic field oil production, of 1,991,934 barrels/day, was 10.6% higher than the same month a year ago, and 2.7% more than the 1,940,412 barrels/day extracted in February 2009. Both the total production (oil and gas) and the exclusive oil production set monthly records.

The 52,000-barrel-a-day difference in oil production took place in the Campos Basin and derived from wells going online and from increased production at platforms P-53 and FPSO Cidade de Niterói (Marlim Leste) and P-54 (Roncador). The daily production record was broken on March 19, when 2,042,559 barrels were lifted.

Considering the fields in Brazil and abroad, the Company’s total oil and natural gas production last March reached the daily average of 2,537,873 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day. This was 8.5% more than in March 2008, and 4.3% higher than the total volume extracted in the first month of this year from the Petrobras’ fields in Brazil and abroad.

The volume of oil and natural gas coming from the nine countries where Petrobras has production assets, in barrels of oil equivalent, topped-out at 222,597 boed, 1.9% less than the volume produced in the previous month, and 1% below the March 2008 production. The international variation occurred on account of factors such as new well drilling rescheduling and intervention services carried out for the existing wells in Venezuela.

Gas production in the domestic fields rose to 51.407 million cubic meters per day, slightly above the 48.867 million cubic meters per day produced in February 2009.

The natural gas production abroad was 16.378 million cubic meters per day, 2.8% less than a month earlier, and 5.7% lower than in March 2008. Factors such as the decreased production in Bolivia, resulting from the lower demand for gas, contributed to this result.