Brazilian state-led Petrobras registered a 1.1% month-on-month advance in crude oil output in April, ending a string of six consecutive monthly declines, after completing maintenance work on a floating production unit at the Lula Field and pumping first oil from the Buzios Field.
Petrobras' domestic output averaged 2.090 million b/d in April, up from 2.068 million b/d in March, the company said late Wednesday. April's production, however, was down 0.5% from the 2.101 million b/d produced in April 2017, according to company data.
April's upswing reversed a trend seen since late 2017, when ongoing maintenance of offshore floating production, storage and offloading vessels, or FPSOs, started to undermine output.
Petrobras attributed the production advance to "the end of equipment maintenance on the FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis, located at the Lula Field, and the start of production from the FPSO P-74, located at the Buzios Field, both platforms that operate in the Santos Basin subsalt region."
Output from the FPSO Cidade Angra dos Reis had been undercut since February because of "operational occurrences," according to Petrobras.
Petrobras pumped first oil from Buzios in late April, with just a single well in operation. The FPSO P-74 has installed capacity to produce up to 150,000 b/d and process 6 million cu m/d of natural gas. Estimated to hold 3.1 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, Buzio's is the first of the transfer-of-rights areas Petrobras received in a 2010 oil-for-shares swap with the government that granted the company rights to pump 5 billion barrels of crude.
Despite April's increase, Petrobras' output remains below its 2018 production target of 2.1 million b/d, company data showed. In the first four months of 2018, Petrobras' domestic oil output has averaged 2.087 million b/d. Petrobras produced 2.154 million b/d in 2017. But Petrobras expects production to decline this year because of planned sales of oil fields in production under Petrobras' $21 billion divestment plan for 2017-18.
Petrobras has more than 100 onshore and offshore fields on the sales block under the asset-sales program.
Output, however, could get an additional boost in the second half of the year as output from the FPSO P-74 is ramped up and Petrobras installs several new FPSOs expected to enter production this year.
The FPSO Cidade de Campos dos Goytacazes, meanwhile, is currently undergoing anchoring operations at the sister Tartaruga Mestica and Tartaruga Verde fields. Once the FPSO is anchored at the field, it should take about 60 days to connect the first production well and pump first oil, according to Petrobras.
Four more FPSOs are also expected to be installed offshore Brazil through the end of 2018: the FPSO P-67 at the Lula Norte area of the Lula Field; the FPSO P-69 at the Lula Extremo Sul area of Lula; and the FPSOs P-75 and P-76 also at the Buzios Field. The FPSO P-68 could also pump first oil from the Berbigao Field in 2018, but a Petrobras official said earlier this month that installation of the FPSO will likely be pushed back to early 2019 because of construction delays.
NATURAL GAS ADVANCE
Petrobras' domestic natural gas production also advanced in April with the end of maintenance work at several key platforms, including Mexilhao and Peroa, the company said. Petrobras produced an average of 79.04 million cu m/d in April, an increase of 1.2% from the 78.11 million cu m/d in March, according to the company. April's gas output was also up 0.7% from the 78.49 million cu m/d produced in April 2017, company data showed.
Output from international operations, meanwhile, trended lower in April because of maintenance work at the St. Malo and Lucius fields in the US Gulf of Mexico, Petrobras said.
Crude oil production from overseas assets averaged 58,000 b/d in April, down 5.1% from the 61,090 b/d produced in March, the company said. April's international oil output was also 9.4% lower than the 64,010 b/d produced in April 2017, company data showed.
Gas production overseas, meanwhile, tumbled 1.6% in April to 6.32 million cu m/d versus 6.42 million cu m/d in March, Petrobras said. April's overseas gas output also sank 34.1% when compared to the 9.59 million cu m/d produced in April 2017, company data showed.
The more robust year-on-year output declines from international operations can be linked to Petrobras' sale of its stake in Petrobras Argentina last year, which is part of a broader retreat from overseas production in order to focus primarily on development of the subsalt at home.
Petrobras' total hydrocarbons output, including domestic and international operations, rose 0.9% to 2.682 million boe/d in April versus 2.658 million boe/d in March, the company said. April's total production, however, was down 1.3% compared to the 2.716 million boe/d produced in April 2017, company data showed.
