Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras reported on Monday a 10.5% decrease in its total fourth-quarter oil and gas production from a year earlier, while also experiencing lower sales and exports.
Petrobras, Latin America's largest oil producer, posted total oil and gas output of 2.63 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) for the three-month period ended in December.
The company reported total sales of oil, gas and derivatives in the quarter that were around 8% lower than a year earlier, totaling 2.83 million barrels per day (bpd).
The firm's oil production in Brazil fell 11.5% in the same period, to 2.09 bpd.
Petrobras said last month that 2024 production would be around 2.7 million boed, 3% lower than in 2023, but within the goals outlined in the firm's strategic plan.
The company said last year's production was impacted by maintenance and unplanned stoppages at offshore production platforms, the natural decline of mature fields and a strike at Brazil's environmental agency Ibama.
The start of operations of two new platforms partially offset that loss, Petrobras said.
Brazil's oil and gas production as a whole went down by 0.5% in 2024, the country's oil regulator ANP said on Monday.
Petrobras' exports in the fourth quarter were 692,000 bpd, nearly 22% lower than in the same period of 2023, the firm said.
Europe is becoming a more lucrative destination for Petrobras' exports, the company said, receiving 38% of all its oil exports in the fourth quarter, up from 28% a year earlier.
About 30% of oil exports from Petrobras went to China in the same period, down from 44% in 2023.
Petrobras is expected to present its fourth-quarter financial earnings on Feb. 26.
(Reuters - Reporting by Fabio Teixeira in Rio de Janeiro and Andre Romani in Sao Paulo; Editing by Kylie Madry and Nia Williams)
