Oil and natural gas production fell in March

In an official note from the ANP, many factors contributed to this drop in oil and natural gas production in the period. Understand what they were and their impacts on the national production chain

On May 5, 2023, the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) released consolidated data on oil and natural gas production for March 2023. In the period, national production reached 3,987 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), comprising 3,115 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil and 138,531 million cubic meters per day (m³/d) of natural gas.

Compared to the previous month, there was a 4,5% reduction in oil production and a 5,5% decrease in natural gas production. However, compared to March 2022, oil increased by 4,5% and natural gas grew by 3%.

Drop in production and influencing factors

The drop in production was mainly caused by the scheduled stoppages at the Petrobras 77 (Búzios field) and FPSO Guanabara (Mero field) production units, located in the pre-salt layer of the Santos Basin. Variations in production can occur due to several factors, such as scheduled stoppages for maintenance, start-up of wells, stoppage of wells for maintenance or cleaning and commissioning of new production units. These actions are aimed at ensuring stable and continuous operation, as well as increasing production over time, despite the challenges.

Interactive access to production data

In addition to the traditional publication in PDF format, the bulletin's data can be consulted interactively using Business Intelligence (BI) technology. This tool allows the user to change the reference month, select different periods for consultation and apply specific filters for fields, states and basins. The interactive version of the bulletin also offers the possibility of consulting the variation in production compared to the previous month by field and maritime installation (pages 33 and 34).

Production in the pre-salt

In March 2023, pre-salt production accounted for 75,4% of Brazilian production, totaling 3,007 million boe/d. 2,363 million bbl/d of oil and 102,43 million m³/d of natural gas were produced through 142 wells. Compared to the previous month, there was a reduction of 8%, while in the annual comparison, the increase was 4,6%.

Use of natural gas

The use of natural gas in March was 97,4%. 48,04 million m³/d were made available to the market, while burning totaled 3,60 million m³/d. There was a 5,5% reduction in flaring compared to February and an increase of 20,9% compared to March 2022.

Origin of production

In March 2023, offshore fields were responsible for 97,7% of oil production and 86% of natural gas production. The fields operated by Petrobras, alone or in consortium with other companies, represented 90,16% of the total produced. Production came from 5.564 wells, 505 offshore and 5.059 onshore.

Featured fields and facilities

In March, the Tupi field, located in the Santos Basin pre-salt, was the largest oil and gas producer, registering 850,44 thousand bbl/d of oil and 40,55 million m³/d of gas Natural. The facility with the highest oil production was FPSO Carioca in the shared Sépia field, with 167,188 thousand bbl/d, and the one with the highest natural gas production was Polo Arara, in the fields of Arara Azul, Araracanga, Carapanaúba, Cupiúba, Rio Urucu and Sudoeste Urucu, with 7,95 million m³/d.

In summary, the data released by the ANP show the evolution of oil and natural gas production in Brazil in March 2023, highlighting the participation of the pre-salt layer and the performance of specific fields and facilities. The numbers reflect fluctuations common in the sector, influenced by factors such as maintenance, start-up of wells and commissioning of new production units.

See also the challenges that Petrobras is facing with Ibama.

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