Because of increased production in the pre-salt basin, Petrobras expects its offshore oil and gas production this year to exceed the previous forecast.

Petrobras forecasts its average pre-salt production for 2020, reaching 2,84 million barrels of oil per day (boed), of which 2,28 million bpd of oil, with a margin of error of 1,5 in the offshore industry. This estimate exceeds the upper range of its original production guidance by 2,5 percent of its original production guidance of 2,7 million boed of total production and 2,2 million bpd of crude oil production.

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Third quarter was good for Petrobras

Petrobras managed to quickly restore its offshore production in the third quarter from platforms that had to stop working due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to contain it, which have been especially challenging for offshore operators.

Petrobras' offshore production of oil, liquid natural gas (NGL) and natural gas averaged 2,95 million boed in the third quarter, up 5,4 percent from the second quarter, as production increased from fields of the pre-salt and production normalized on the platforms that had stopped operations due to COVID-19 in the second quarter.

Production in the pre-salt fields increased by 8%

Crude oil production in pre-salt fields increased 8,1 percent to 1,651 million bpd in Q2 compared to QXNUMX, mainly due to greater operational efficiency of platforms in Búzios field and platform ramp-up of production in Tupi and Atapu oil fields.

Compared to the third quarter of 2019, Petrobras' crude oil production in the offshore pre-salt area increased by 20,8%. In the accumulated result for the year, production from the pre-salt fields increased 32,2% per year, the company said.

In August of this year, Petrobras launched a new phase in the development of the first oil project in deep waters since the beginning of the crisis, in the Mero field, in the Santos Basin. The FPSO Marechal Duque de Caxias will be the third platform to be deployed in the Mero field, part of Brazil's prolific pre-salt zone that holds most of its untapped oil and gas wealth.