Petrobras announced yesterday that its net income was 11% up on 2012 due to diesel (20%) and gasoline (11%) price increases in 2013, increased production of oil products, cost optimization, gains from the sale of assets, lower write-offs for dry wells and lower foreign exchange impact due to hedge accounting. Adjusted EBITDA totaled R$ 62.967 billion, up 18% on 2012. 

In the fourth quarter net income was R$ 6.281 billion, up 85% on the third quarter. According to the company, this result reflects higher oil export volumes, lower dry well write-offs, gains from sale of the interest in block BC-10 and tax benefits stemming from provision of interest on own capital. 2013 oil and natural gas production totaled 2.539 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), down 2% on 2012, primarily due to delays in starting up new systems, natural decline of fields and sale of assets abroad. Fourth quarter domestic output was up 1% on the third quarter.

In 2013, five new platforms came on stream and another four systems were deployed at their permanent locations. A pre-salt daily output record of 371,000 bpd was set on December 24th. Moreover, the proven reserves in Brazil reached 16 billion barrels of oil equivalent, up 1.6% on 2012. The Reserve Replacement Ratio has been higher than 100% for 22 years in a row. The Petrobras release said average production of oil products in Brazil totaled 2.124 million bpd in 2013, up 6% on 2012, cutting back diesel and gasoline imports.

Graça Foster, president of Petrobras, said in a press conference today that three programs Proef, Prodesin and Procop was primal to the 2013 result. Proef (Campos Basin operational efficiency improvement program) contributed with additional oil output of 63,000 bpd. Operational efficiency reached 75% for the Campos Basin Operational Unit (UO-BC) and 92% for Rio (UO-RIO). Prodesin (divestment program) contributed R$ 8.5 billion to cash flow in 2013. And Procop (operating costs optimization program) achieved savings of R$ 6.6 billion in 2013, exceeding the R$ 3.9 billion target set for the year.