Brazil: Petrobras' third-quarter profits up 96%

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:27:45 GMT
Brazil's Petrobras oil company has posted a record third-quarter net profit of 96 percent compared to the same quarter last year.  The profit almost doubled because of increase in output, higher prices for crude and weaker Brazilian currency, the reais.  The Rio de Janeiro-based Petroleo Brasileiro SA or popularly known as Petrobras, made 10.8 billion reais (USD 4.88 billion) in the third quarter (July-September), whereas it was 5.5 billion reais in the same period last year, company executives told a press conference at the company headquarters Tuesday.  They said that since there will be a delay in the new platforms scheduled to come onstream in the fourth quarter, they have at present lowered their average daily production forecast for 2008. The new platforms will go into operation by January next year.   The company's oil and gas output worldwide rose to 2.44 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter from 2.31 million BOE/day a year earlier.   Natural gas output in Brazil grew 22 percent due to the increase in the output from new wells in the second quarter connected to P-52 and P-54 platforms in the Roncador field and ESS-103 well in the subsalt layer in the Campos basin that is connected to the P-34 platform, Reuters reported.  FTP/RA Original source at PressTV