Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras raised its projection for oil and gas production this year, after posting a 41.5% decrease in third-quarter profit on Thursday.
The firm lifted its 2023 oil and gas output to 2.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), from 2.6 million boed previously, taking into the account platform ramp-ups and new wells that will go online in the fourth quarter.
The company also lowered its CAPEX estimate to $13 billion, down from $16 billion previously, citing difficulties with suppliers in a "post-pandemic inflationary context."
Latin America's top oil producer posted a recurring net profit of 27.2 billion reais ($5.51 billion), while analysts polled by LSEG had expected 28.74 billion reais.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the period shrank 27.6% to 66.19 billion reais ($13.41 billion).
The oil company's sales revenue totaled 124.83 billion reais in the quarter, down 26.6% year-on-year, mainly due to a 14% drop in Brent prices.
Petrobras also said it will pay shareholders 1.344365 reais per share, totaling 17.5 billion reais in dividends.
The company will pay a first installment to shareholders in February, and a second one in March.
Last month, the company reported a 9.6% increase in quarterly crude oil production in the third quarter.
It attributed the increase to the ramp-up of two offshore platforms in the Santos Basin and two more in the Campos Basin, in addition to fewer platform maintenance stoppages in the period.
($1 = 4.9342 reais)
(Reuters - Reporting by Fabio Teixeira - Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast)