Brazil's Petrobras announces production increase

Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras announced on Tuesday that it had reached a record for daily production of 1,912,733 barrels on Monday.

The previous record registered by the company was 1,882,000 barrels, achieved in May 2006.

A Petrobras announcement contributed the achievement to the maintenance of onshore field production and the operation of three new wells, connected with the offshore platform P-50 in the Campos Basin, off Brazil's southeastern coast.

With the wells, the platform reached a production rate of 150,000 barrels a day, and the connection of four more wells to P-50 is in the process of being completed.

The company estimated that, within a few weeks, the production of the platform would reach its maximum capacity of 180,000 barrels per day.

Petrobras also said the achievement was a decisive step, as it intended to reach the goal of producing 2 million barrels per day before the end of 2006.

By the end of the year, two more platforms were expected to go online in the Campos Basin.

In November, the company will start operating the P-34 platform in the Jubarte field, with a production capacity of 60,000 barrels a day.

In December, an FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) platform will go online in the Espadarte field, with a potential production of 100,000 barrels a day.

Source: Xinhua