Petrobras Expands Commercial Gas Portfolio: Report

Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras has unveiled a new commercial portfolio for natural gas, according to a Reuters report.

The firm, formally known as Petroleo Brasileiro SA, said it was targeting to include “diversified” deadlines, benchmarks and delivery points to “ensure competitiveness”, the report stated. Petrobras announced it would use Henry Hub benchmark prices for gas aside from Brent oil prices, and it would give distributors more alternatives for contract deadlines and delivery locations.

The announcement came after the takeover in January of the company’s new CEO Jean Paul Prates, who, in a financial performance report that Petrobras released earlier this month, highlighted the company’s most recent platform in the Campos Basin, FPSO Anna Nery, while declaring platforms Almirante Barroso and Anita Garibaldi ready for production.

He also said that the company aims to start up production in 13 more platforms by 2027. FPSO Anna Nery is estimated to produce 70,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and process 141.26 million cubic feet (four million cubic meters) of gas per day. Anita Garibaldi can produce up to 80,000 bpd and process up to 247.2 million cubic feet (seven million cubic meters) of gas per day, the company said.

Lower Q1 Earnings

Petrobras reported a recurring net income of $7.25 billion in the first quarter of 2023, a decline from the previous quarter’s figure of $8.16 billion, which it attributed to the fall in Brent oil prices. Net revenues also dipped 11 percent compared to the previous quarter. The company highlighted the quarter’s recurring EBITDA at $14.3 billion, which it said was its fourth highest recurring EBITDA in its history.

The state-run firm said that total investment for the first quarter totaled $2.5 billion, with exploration and production segments receiving $2 billion, a 49 percent increase year over year. These investments were “due to the development of large projects that will maintain the oil and gas production curve in the coming years,” according to its news release.

The company said it broke its pre-salt production record in the first quarter, attaining 2.13 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in February and averaging 2.05 million boe/d in output for the quarter.

Earlier in the year, Petrobras announced that it exceeded its oil and natural gas production targets in 2022.

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