Hard at work: on the P 50
Glitches cut Petrobras output
Domestic oil output from Brazil's state-run giant Petrobras fell 2.1% in September from August due to operating problems at some facilities which have since been fixed.
Petrobras said in a statement it pumped an average of 1.77 million barrels per day last month, below last year's average. It was the third straight monthly drop.
The company said it had operating problems at the Barracuda, Caratinga, Espadarte, and Roncador fields.
Petrobras expects the output fall to be reversed soon as three big new projects are due to come onstream in the coming weeks to recover lost output and push production levels to around 1.85 million bpd from last year's 1.78 million bpd.
Natural gas production in Brazil fell 1.7% to 42.3 million cubic metres per day.
The company's international oil output rose in September to 128,500 bpd from 124,867 bpd in August on higher production in Argentina and Colombia.
Natural gas production abroad fell to 19.2 MMcmd from 19.9 MMcmd.
Petrobras expects to bring two 180,000 bpd units on stream at the Roncador heavy oil field and a 100,000 bpd facility on the light oil Golfinho field after some delays. A smaller unit on the light oil Piranema field started operating on 10 October.
It expects an average annual output growth of over 7% through 2012, and 6.8% through 2015.