Petrobras Misses Production Target for 2018

Domestic Production Was Affected by FPSO Delays and Divestments

The Brazilian oil giant Petrobras recorded a 5.5% drop in domestic oil production in 2018 and did not meet the proposed target, affected by delays in the start of some production units in the pre-salt province and by asset sales. Petrobras ended 2018 with an average production of 2.034 million barrels per day of oil in Brazil, the lowest level since 2014 – down from 2.153 million bpd in 2017. The company expects to end the year with a production of 2.1 million bpd.

Natural gas production in the country fell by 1.6% in 2018, to 78.3 million cubic meters per day, while total hydrocarbon production in Brazil and abroad decreased by 5%, to 2.627 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Despite four large floating production, storage, and offloading vessels entering operation for Petrobras in 2018, the first oil from three other FPSOs – P-67, P-68, and P-76 – ended up being postponed to 2019.

Petrobras did not set a national oil production target for 2019, but stated that it expects total hydrocarbon production to increase to 2.8 million boept this year.