Brazil's Petrobras oil and gas production returns to Q2-2020 levels

Quantum Commodity Intelligence – Brazilian state-owned oil major Petrobras's oil and gas production reached a year-high of 2.796 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in the second quarter, up 1.1% from the first quarter as it ramped up production in its pre-salt fields.

Production was down 0.2%, or just 6,000 boe from the year-ago level and up 6.2%, 163,000 boe from April to June 2019.

Crude oil and natural gas liquid (NGL) output was 2.225 million barrels, up 1.3% from Q1 this year on a 3.4% rise in pre-salt production to 1.62 million barrels, while post-salt and onshore/shallow production dropped 2.9% and 9.2% respectively to 506,000 barrels and 99,000 barrels.

This left total crude production down 0.9% from Q2 2020 and up 8.4% from the same quarter 2019.

The company shifted production away from shallow water and other less price competitive fields during the pandemic and period of falling oil prices, and also suffered disruption to some platforms due to social distancing and other safety related measures.