Pre-salt exploitation accounts for over half of Brazilian oil production

BRASILIA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Oil and gas production from Brazilian pre-salt fields surpassed 50 percent of the total production in December, the country's national oil agency, ANP, announced on Wednesday.

This is a milestone for Brazil as the pre-salt fields, located deep off its Atlantic coast, are seen as the long-term guarantees of the country's energy security.

In December, the production from pre-salt fields in deepwaters reached 1.685 million barrels per day, or 50.7 percent of Brazil's total production.

The 85 wells that contributed to this total are drilled into the geological layers, known as pre-salt, in the Brazilian underwater continental shelf.

This result took place at a time when the country is focusing on redrilling wells in the pre-salt layer instead of carrying out new explorations in the area.

In October 2017, Brazil tendered out eight deepwater blocks, which interested the giants of the sector, with the intention of receiving 6.15 billion reais (1.93 billion U.S. dollars) for public coffers.

When announcing the results, the ANP said that production in 2017 had exceeded 967 million barrels, 4 percent than in 2016.

As for natural gas, Brazilian production increased 6 percent year-on-year, with a production of 40 billion cubic meters. Enditem