Long established as a global giant in the oil and gas industry, Brazil is reported to have recently recorded increase in proven oil reserves.
The South American giant’s 2023 Annual Resources and Reserves Bulletin of the National Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels Agency (ANP) has informed that the country’s proven oil reserves are currently estimated at a stupendous 15,894 billion barrels of oil.
The disclosure was reportedly made back in March this year by the country’s national Public News Agency, Agencia Brasil, which disclosed that last year, South America’s unquestioned oil giant experienced a 6.98 per cent increase in proven oil reserves, compared with 2022.
According to the report, countries contracted by Brazil for exploration and production declared a total of 15,894 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. The data on Brazil’s oil reserves was reportedly taken from the country’s Annual Resources and Reserves Bulletin of the ANP
The term ‘proven reserves’ refers to the volumes of oil and natural gas probes providing geoscience and engineering data that renders information on the amount of oil or natural gas that is commercially recoverable with reasonable certainty. “When probabilistic methods are employed, the probability that the quantity recovered is equal to or greater than the estimate must be at least 90 percent,” the Agensia Brasil article explains.
ANP reports that fluctuations in the volume of Brazilian oil and natural gas reserves derive from production during the year while additional reserves derive from “new development projects, declarations of commerciality, and revisions of field reserves due to various technical and economic factors.”
The report makes reference to the work of Brazilian geologist and academic, Jorge Picanco Figueiredo, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) who reportedly takes the position that assessment of the country’s petro-position on the international stage derives from a qualitative rather than a quantitative perspective. “The United States has 68.8 billion proven reserves; Russia, 107.8 billion; Saudi Arabia, 297 billion; Iraq, 145 billion; Iran, 157 billion; and Venezuela, 303 billion,” the Brazilian academic is quoted as saying, reportedly adding that Brazilian oil is of high quality.
Professor Figueiredo also reportedly highlights the fact that Brazil extracts 3.5 billion barrels of oil per day “In 365 days, we yield 1.27 billion barrels a year. We essentially produce a giant oil field every year. Our production is high, significantly exceeding our domestic consumption of around 2.5 million barrels a day. The surplus of proximately one million barrels is sold on the foreign market,” he reportedly added.
Petrobras reportedly plans to spend north of $7 billion over the next five years on exploration of potential offshore drilling sites along other stretches of Brazil’s coast to augment its already growing production.
