Oil and gas output falls 3.1% for the year, despite pre-salt records
By Kariny Leal and Rafael Rosas — Rio de Janeiro
02/04/2025 10:02 AM
Petrobras achieved its oil and gas production targets for 2024, but that didn’t prevent the company from posting annual and quarterly declines in output. According to the state-run oil giant’s production and sales report released Monday (3), its daily production of oil, natural gas liquids (NGL), and natural gas averaged 2.66 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) last year, down 3.1% from 2023.
Domestic production of oil and NGL totaled 2.15 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024, a 3.5% drop from the previous year. Meanwhile, natural gas output in Brazil stood at 512,000 BOE/d, a 0.8% decline from 2023.
In the fourth quarter, total oil and gas production fell 10.5% year-over-year to 2.59 million BOE/d. Oil and NGL output declined 11.5% to 2.09 million bpd, while natural gas production dropped 6.1% to 507,000 BOE/d.
Petrobras set new annual production records in Brazil’s pre-salt region, with company-operated output reaching 2.2 million BOE/d and total operated production hitting 3.2 million BOE/d. The pre-salt accounted for 81% of the company’s total production in 2024.
Despite these milestones, fourth-quarter production of oil and NGL in the pre-salt fell 9.1% year-over-year to 1.76 million bpd. For the full year, however, pre-salt production edged up 0.4% to 1.813 million bpd.
According to Petrobras, the fourth-quarter decline was due to a higher number of maintenance shutdowns in the Búzios field. Over the full year, production levels were supported by ramp-ups at the Sepetiba, Almirante Barroso, Anita Garibaldi, Marechal Duque de Caxias, and Maria Quitéria platforms.
In Brazil’s post-salt region, oil and NGL production fell 24% in the fourth quarter to 295,000 bpd compared to the same period in 2023. For the full year, post-salt output declined 20.2% to 305,000 bpd.
Petrobras attributed the drop to production restrictions on platforms that resumed operations during the fourth quarter, coupled with the natural decline of mature fields. However, ramped-up production at the Anna Nery platform and the startup of four new wells in the Campos Basin helped offset some of the losses.
In refined product sales, Petrobras sold an average of 1.72 million bpd in the domestic market in 2024, a 1.4% decline from the previous year. In the fourth quarter, however, sales rose 1.4% year-over-year to 1.758 million bpd.
The company’s total refinery utilization rate reached 95% in the fourth quarter, up one percentage point from the same period in 2023. For the full year, refinery utilization averaged 93%, also one percentage point higher than in 2023.
Source: Valor International / BR8
