Petrobras has announced that its total oil and natural gas production in Brazil, in December of 2013, was 2.362 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), up 0.8% on the 2.342 million boed extracted in November. Oil production averaged 1.964 million barrels per day (bpd), up 0.4% on November's production of 1.957 million bpd.

Including the production managed by Petrobras for its partners in Brazil, total volume in December was 2.493 million boed and oil output was 2.043 million bpd.

December's production increase was mainly influenced by the start-up of new wells on platforms P-26, in the Marlim field, and P-56, in the Marlim Sul field, both in the Campos Basin. These new wells have offset the drop in output due to the scheduled maintenance shutdown of platform P-53, which began at the end of November and was completed in December, and the shutdown of P-20, in the Marlim field, as of December 27, to repair damage caused by a fire in the platform's chemical products unit. Up to that point, this unit had been producing 22 thousand barrels per day and the interruption in production during the last five days of 2013 affected the month's average production by 3,500 bpd. The unit is expected to restart production in the first quarter of 2014.

Tags: Petrobras