By Brazil Stock Guide — Petrobras has identified opportunities to add 540,000 barrels per day of production capacity at existing offshore platforms by making better use of equipment and facilities, executives said on Wednesday during the company’s third-quarter results presentation. Of that total, an additional 280,000 bpd has been approved across 11 units, while another 260,000 bpd is under study at six platforms.
The expansion would increase capacity without requiring new platforms, although investment in well connections and subsea equipment is still needed. Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer Fernando Melgarejo said actual production gains at platforms covered by the initiative averaged approximately 90,000 bpd through October. The approved capacity increases have therefore yet to translate fully into additional output.
“We already have 11 platforms operating above their original design capacity, without construction work, simply by identifying and engineering ways to use spare capacity built into their designs,” Chief Executive Magda Chambriard said. The additional 280,000 bpd is equivalent to almost two platforms capable of producing 150,000 bpd each, she said, allowing Petrobras to bring forward output that would otherwise require years of waiting for new units to be contracted and delivered.
Melgarejo said installing new production systems equivalent to the capacity expansion already approved would require investment of roughly $10 billion to $12 billion. That estimate is management’s comparison with the cost of new systems, rather than a demonstrated reduction in the company’s spending.
Examples include the Almirante Tamandaré floating production, storage and offloading vessel, or FPSO, which was designed to produce 225,000 bpd and reached a peak of 270,000 bpd, according to Melgarejo. Chambriard said the P-78 platform, with a nameplate capacity of 180,000 bpd, is already producing 200,000 bpd. The P-79 has reached 100,000 bpd with just two wells connected and could eventually produce at least 200,000 bpd, above its original design capacity of 180,000 bpd, she added.
Management attributed the production gains to maintenance, improved operating efficiency, reservoir management, additional well connections and faster platform start-ups and production ramp-ups. Chambriard said those efforts had reduced the annual production decline rate at reservoirs from about 10% to approximately 3%, helping preserve output from existing assets as new units come on stream.
The gains contributed to the higher production guidance announced on Tuesday. Petrobras now expects crude oil and natural gas liquids output to average between 2.7 million and 2.8 million bpd in 2026, up from its previous forecast of 2.5 million bpd. Including natural gas, total production guidance rose from 3.1 million to between 3.3 million and 3.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The faster pace of activity also prompted an increase in planned investment. Capital expenditure for projects under implementation rose from $19.4 billion to a range of $24 billion to $25.5 billion this year. Petrobras attributed the revision mainly to exchange-rate effects and faster-than-planned project execution, including progress on platform construction, greater drilling-rig availability and more well connections. The company said the updated guidance does not represent an increase in total project costs.
Melgarejo said higher oil prices had boosted cash generation and allowed Petrobras to accelerate investment. The company had based its 2026 plan on Brent crude at $63 a barrel but now expects an annual average of between $90 and $100. Investment totaled $16.8 billion in the first nine months, including $6.4 billion in the third quarter.
For 2027, Petrobras expects the P-80 platform to begin production in the first quarter and the P-82 in the second quarter, both at the Búzios field. The P-83 is scheduled to start producing in the second half, with scope for an earlier start, Melgarejo said. Each unit has a nameplate capacity of 225,000 bpd, providing another source of growth alongside efforts to increase output from platforms already in operation.
Leave a Reply