Petrobras’ oil and natural gas output in Brazil and abroad, in March 2015, was 2,764,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), down 1.3% from February 2015 (2,801,000 boed).

Of this total, 2,574,000 boed were produced in Brazil and 189,900 boed abroad. The output of 2,764,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) is 8.3% higher than the March 2014 output of 2,551,000 boed.

Oil and gas output in Brazil

In March, total oil and natural gas output in Brazil was 2,574,000 boed, down 1.4% from February (2,612,000 boed), and up 10.4% year-on-year (2,331,000 boed).

Total oil and natural gas output operated by Petrobras in Brazil, which includes the volume operated for partner companies, was 2,834,000 boed, down 0.7% from February (2,854,000 boed).

Petrobras’s exclusive oil output in Brazil was 2,108,000 barrels per day (bpd), down 1.8% from February’s output of 2,146,000 bpd.

Oil production operated in Brazil was 2,297,000 bpd, down 0.9% from a month ago (2,319,000 bpd).

The in output in March is largely due to the temporary shutdown of platform P-58, which started-up on March 17, 2014 and is currently undergoing final tests and adjustments to its production systems. Petrobras shut the unit down from March 18, 2015 to April 8, 2015 to conduct preventive maintenance and improve the operational efficiency of certain systems, in compliance with current norms and guidelines of Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP).

In March, natural gas output in Brazil, excluding liquefied volume, was 74 million m³/day, in line with last month’s output.

Non-liquefied gas output, including the share of partner companies, reached 85.5 million m³/day.

The utilization of produced gas remained high at 95.9% in March.

Pre-salt’s production in March increases 70% compared to the same period of 2014

In March 2015, output operated by Petrobras in the pre-salt layer of the Santos and Campos Basins, which includes the share operated for its partner companies, broke a new record and averaged 672,000 barrels of per day (bpd) a month, up 0.5% from the previous record of 669,000 bpd set in January 2015. This volume represents a 70% rise from March’s 2014 output of 395,000 bpd.

Innovative pre-salt technology – On March 26, Petrobras started-up the first riser (ascending pipe) set up in the Santos Basin pre-salt using the Steel Lazy Wave Riser (SLWR) concept. It entails a steel pipe equipped with a set of buoys that form a bend at a particular section of the equipment aimed at buffering impacts caused by the production platform’s movement.

This is just one of the technologies comprising the set of innovations employed by Petrobras in the pre-salt and recognized by the OTC (Offshore Technology Conference) Award 2015, conferred upon the oil and gas company making the greatest contributions to the technological development of the worldwide offshore industry.

SLWR was set up on well 7-SPH-007, at a water depth of 2,140 meters, a record depth for this type of technology. The equipment connects well 7-SPH-007 to FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela, in the northern section of Sapinhoá field in the Santos Basin pre-salt. This well has reported the highest output per well in the pre-salt layer at a flow of approximately 40,000 barrels per day

Output abroad

In March, 189,900 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) were produced abroad, up 0.6% from 188,700 boed produced last month.

Average oil output in March was 101,900 barrels of oil per day (bpd), up 1.6% from 100.400 bpd produced last month mainly due to the start-up of new production wells at Saint Malo and Lucius in the United States.

Average natural gas output abroad, excluding liquefied volume, was 15 million m³/d, remaining stable when compared to February’s output of 15,016,000 m³/d.