Brazil’s Petrobras plans to spend $111 billion in the five years between 2025 and 2029, with $77 billion of this total earmarked for oil and gas exploration and production activities, Reuters reported, citing a securities filing.
The new spending figure is $10 billion higher than an earlier version of the investment plan, where exploration and production spending was set at $73 billion. That earlier plan, in turn, was an upward revision on an even earlier version of the 2025-2029 budget that stood at $102 billion.
Spending for 2025 specifically, however, was revised down in October. Initially pegged at $21 billion, the company’s spending plan for the year now stands at $17 billion, which Petrobras said was a more realistic figure in line with its financial capacity.
The latest revision sees daily production resulting from these investments at 3.2 million barrels of oil equivalent, cementing Brazil’s standing as the top oil and gas producer in South America. The plan also contains a $20-billion allocation for refining, transportation, marketing, petrochemicals, and fertilizers, the Reuters report noted.
Petrobras currently produces around 2.7 million barrels of oil equivalent, based on third-quarter numbers. That daily average represented a 6.5% annual dip in production, with production from the presalt zone down by 2.7% in the three-month period. Oil production specifically fell by 8.2% in the third quarter, to 2.13 million barrels daily.
That followed a second-quarter production increase to 2.7 million barrels of oil equivalent daily, up 2.4% on the first quarter, when maintenance work on offshore platforms led to a 25% decline in production.
Going forward, the Brazil state energy major will focus on boosting production from existing fields, the company said earlier in the year, and seek to diversify its portfolio without losing focus of its profitable assets. Stemming natural depletion at mature fields will be another focus for the company between 2025 and 2029.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
