Brazil's Petrobras Reports Flat Hydrocarbon Production in Q1, Drop in Product Sales

Written by Amir Richani for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) released its hydrocarbon sales and production report for the first quarter, displaying an output of 2.771 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) between January and March, on par with the same period last year but 5.4% higher than the previous quarter. The company continues to ramp up floating units to boost production.

Overall, Petrobras' liquid hydrocarbon production in Brazil during the quarter stood at 2.21 million barrels of oil per day (BBL/d), which was slightly lower year on year but 5.9% higher than the previous quarter. Out of that, pre-salt output accounted for 1.853 million BBL/d.

The higher quarterly volume compared to the fourth quarter last year was the result of the startup of the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) structure Almirante Tamandare in the Buzios Field and the ramp-up of the FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias in the Mero Field. The company also began production at seven wells--five in the Santos Basin and two in the Campos Basin.

"The production startup of FPSO Almirante Tamandaré is strategic for Petrobras and represents an expansion of the production in the Búzios field in a sustainable and innovative way. Not only is it a high-capacity platform, with the potential to produce up to 225,000 barrels of oil and process 12 million cubic meters of gas per day, but it also features modern decarbonization technologies, enabling increased efficiency and reduced emissions," mentioned Renata Baruzzi, chief of engineering, technology, and innovation officer at Petrobras.

The energy company has launched a campaign to continue increasing its pre-salt and post-salt volumes in the next few years by developing nine new FPSOs between 2025 and 2029, with another five platform projects after 2030; six more are under study.

Petrobras expects its Buzios oil field to reach an oil production of 1 million BBL/d by this year with the ramp-up of the FPSO Almirante Tamandare. Meanwhile, the company could reach an output of 2 million by the end of the decade with the deployment of five more FPSOs.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Production Plant Database can read profiles for the FPSO Almirante Tamandare and FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias.

On the downstream front, Petrobras reached a 90% refining utilization factor across its assets in Q1 despite the scheduled shutdown of the Abreu e Lima refinery (RNEST), which is currently being upgraded and expanded. Subscribers to the GMI Refining Project and Plant databases can click here for the related project reports and here for the plant profile.

As a result, the company produced 1.7 million BBL/d of oil products between January and March, about 6.2% less than during the previous quarter and 2.7% below year-on-year volumes. Fuel product sales were also lower than in the previous quarter due to seasonality.

Besides the upgrades for RNEST, Petrobras reached a new milestone during Q1 after conducting successful production tests for sustainable aviation fuels at three of its refineries. As part of its long-term plan, the company aims to produce cleaner fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations.

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