In a first, Brazil produces more than one billion barrels of oil in 2019

Brazil produced 1.018 billion barrels of oil in 2019, marking the first time the South American nation passed the billion-barrel mark for annual production, the national oil regulator said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the regulator, known as the ANP, said 2019 output increased 7.78% over the previous year. Brazil produced 3.106 million barrels per day of oil in December, up 0.52% from the previous month and up 15.44% from December 2018.

Brazil has been quickly ramping up its oil and natural gas production over the last year, as state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA and foreign competitors put more production online in a prolific seabed formation known as the pre-salt.

In 2019, total oil production in the pre-salt area reached 633.98 million barrels, ANP said, up 21.56% from 2018.

Total natural gas production reached 44.724 billion cubic meters, up 9.46% from 2018. In December, natural gas production rose 0.87% from the previous month and 21.19% from December 2018 to 137.8 million cubic meters per day.

Source: Reuters