Pre-salt already accounts for almost 70% of national production

Last week, ANP published its Monthly Bulletin of Oil and Natural Gas Production for April. During the month, production in the pre-salt reached 2.597 MMboe/d, corresponding to 69.5% of the national total. Pre-salt production included 2.057 MMbbl/d of oil and 86 MMm3/d of natural gas across 113 wells, representing an increase of 4.2% MoM and 31.2% YoY.

National production came in at 3.738 MMboe/d, with 2.958 MMbbl/d of oil and 124 MMm3/d of natural gas. Oil production decreased by 0.5% MoM and increased 13.6% YoY, while natural gas production increased 1.9% MoM and 9.8% YoY. 

The April Production Bulletin also listed the fields and offshore facilities that had their activities paralyzed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 38 fields – 21 offshore and 17 onshore – and a total of 66 offshore production facilities having production temporarily interrupted.

Use of Natural Gas

In April, the use of natural gas was 97.8%. 50.6 MMm³/day were made available to the market. Gas flaring in the month was 2.724 MMm³/d, a reduction of 19.8% MoM and 54.9% YoY. The reduction was due to the end of a long-term test in the offshore portion of the Sergipe Alagoas Basin and lower burning in the Lula and Búzios fields.

Origin of Production

In April, offshore fields produced 96.7% of oil and 86% of natural gas. The fields operated by Petrobras were responsible for 94.9% of the oil and natural gas produced in Brazil. However, fields exclusive participation of the Brazilian oil major produced 39.9% of the total.

Highlights

The Lula field in the Santos Basin was the largest producer of oil and natural gas, registering 1.033 Mbbl/d of oil and 45.7 MMm3/d of natural gas.

The Petrobras 75 platform (P-75), producing in the Búzios and Tambuatá fields through four interconnected wells, produced 158.556 Mbbl/d of oil, making it the facility with the highest oil production.

The Polo Arara installation, producing in the Arara Azul, Araracanga, Carapanaúba, Cupiúba, Rio Urucu and Sudoeste de Urucu fields through 35 wells, produced 7.629MMm³/d, making it the installation with the highest production of natural gas.

Estreito, in the Potiguar Basin, had the largest number of onshore producing wells: 1,079.

Marlim Sul, in the Campos Basin, was the field with the largest number of offshore producing wells: 67.

Marginal Accumulations

These fields produced 48.2 bbl/d of oil and 10 Mm³/d of natural gas. The Iraí field, operated by Petroborn, was the largest producer, with 60.1 boe/d.

Other Information

In April, 272 concession areas, two Transfer of Rights areas and five production-sharing areas operated by 33 companies were responsible for national production. Of these, 59 were offshore and 213 onshore, with seven of which referring to contracts for areas containing marginal accumulations. Production took place in 6,989 wells, with 508 being offshore and 6,481 onshore.

The average API grade was 27.9, with 2.9% of production considered light oil (> = 31 ° API), 87.6% average oil (> = 22 API and <31 API) and 9.5% oil heavy (<22 API).

The mature onshore basins (fields/long-term tests in the Espírito Santo, Potiguar, Recôncavo, Sergipe and Alagoas basins) produced 98.8 Mboe/d, of which 79.4 thousand bbl/d was oil and 3.1 MMm³/d was natural gas. Of this, 87,200 boe/d were produced by Petrobras and 11,600 boe/d were produced by concessions not operated by Petrobras, of which: 333 boe/d came from Alagoas, 3,157 boe/d from Bahia, 6 boe/d from Espírito Santo, 7,925 boe/d from Rio Grande do Norte and 214 boe/d from Sergipe.  

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