Brazil’s Petrobras plans to extract every last drop of oil from existing oil fields, Bloomberg has reported, while also searching for fresh deposits to avoid a decline in output in the next decade.
As part of these plans, Petrobras will seek to revitalize production from aging fields, such as those in the Campos Basin, where recovery rates have declined to just 17% and this “bothers” the company’s management, according to chief executive Magda Chambriard.
The guiding principle for the company would be “all the oil counts”, with the detailed plan for its future production to be made public next month.
The news comes on the heels of a report that Petrobras would spend less capital next year, cutting its capex plan to $17 billion from an earlier target of $21 billion to make it more realistic. The five-year capex plan for 2024-2028, however, remains at 31% higher than the previous five-year period.
Meanwhile, efforts to increase oil and gas production are bearing fruit. Petrobras produced 2.7 million barrels of oil equivalent in the second quarter of the year, which represented a 2.4% increase as the company ramped up production at five platforms and started 12 new wells, of which eight in the Campos Basin and four in the Santos Basin.
The ramp-up follows a 25% drop in Brazilian output earlier this year amid platform maintenance. Now, platforms are returning from maintenance and producing more oil. Earlier-than-expected starts to some projects are also set to help Brazil recover its oil output later this year, and production could exceed forecasts.
For next year, the International Energy Agency has forecast that Brazilian oil production would go up by 190,000 barrels daily. With Petrobras accounting for as much as 90% of that total, that increase will fall to its platforms. Yet the company is adding production capacity of a lot more than 190,000 bpd right now: by the end of the year it would add three new floating production and storage vessels with a combined production capacity of over 500,000 barrels daily.
