The president of Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras, Magda Chambriard, highlighted that the launch of new extraction platforms will ensure production growth over the next eight years.
“We are on the right track, with increasing cash generation and many platforms set to come online, which will guarantee production growth through 2030 and 2032,” Chambriard stated during a press conference following the release of third-quarter results for Brazil’s largest company.
Chambriard regarded the quarterly profit of 32.5 billion reais (approximately 5.6 billion dollars or 5.2 billion euros at today’s exchange rate), up 22.3% from a year earlier, as “remarkable,” especially amid falling international Brent prices.
“These are extremely solid results… surpassing market expectations,” Chambriard declared, also describing the company's debt as “negligible,” now at its lowest level since 2008.
On the topic of extraordinary dividend distribution, an issue that had sparked tensions earlier in the year between the company’s former leadership and the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Petrobras said a decision is yet to be made.
Regarding the controversial offshore oil exploration project 500 kilometers from the mouth of the Amazon River, Petrobras management indicated they plan to respond this month to questions from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment, the agency responsible for granting licenses.
The company expects to end the year with an average production rate of 2.8 million barrels per day.
Despite the improvement in third-quarter results, net profit for the first nine months of the year stood at 53.65 billion reais (about 9.29 billion dollars), a 47.7% drop from the same period in 2023.
Petrobras clarified that the significant reduction in profit was due to a settlement reached this year with the government to conclude long-standing tax disputes, which negatively impacted the second-quarter results.