Brazil is rapidly becoming one of the world's top petroleum producers. In December 2007, state company Petrobras produced a record of 2.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, an outstanding jump from 1 million barrels a day produced less than two years ago. Last year, the company added six platforms capable of making 590,000 barrels a day to its productive capacity. Brazil proudly points out that it has achieved its record outflow of oil by following a path unlike that taken by other major producing countries. Most nations in the 2-million-barrel-plus range make their oil from massive onshore deposits. Petrobras has instead explored offshore in deep and ultradeep waters. Indeed, an astonishing 1.75 million barrels of Petrobras' production came from offshore fields, mainly in the Campos and Espirito Santo basins. And, its future appears very promising: this year, Petrobras will begin flowing oil and gas from another four projects. Platforms P-51 and P-53 in the Campos Basin will each have production capacities of 180,000 barrels a day, and two FPSOs, in the Campos and Espirito Santo basins, will add 100,000 barrels of oil and 350 million cubic feet of gas per day, respectively. Farther ahead, Petrobras has already set in motion a program to bring its outstanding Tupi subsalt discovery to market. The company plans a long-duration test by the end of this year that will produce 30,000 to 40,000 barrels of oil per day for a period of six months. It's the first step in commercializing the multi-billion-barrel deepwater find. by Peggy Williams, Senior Exploration Editor, Oil and Gas Investor pwilliams@hartenergy.com
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