OREANDA-NEWS. Brazil's oil production, including emblematic sub-salt output that has been rising steadily for months, declined in September.

The country produced 2.395mn b/d, a 6pc decline compared with August and a 1.6pc increase compared with September 2014, Brazilian oil regulator ANP said.

The downturn mainly reflected scheduled maintenance at offshore platforms operated by Brazil's state-controlled Petrobras, which accounted for around 93pc of oil and natural gas produced during the month, the ANP said.

Sub-salt oil production averaged 828,500 b/d in September, down from 859,800 b/d in August. Associated natural gas averaged 31.9mn m³/d (1.13bn ft³/d), down from 32.5mn m³/d in August. Total sub-salt production reached 1.029 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) in September, down from a record 1.064mn boe/d in the previous month.

The P-52 platform in the Roncador post-salt field in the Campos basin registered production of 46,869 b/d in September, compared with 141,274 b/d in August.

The P-58 platform in the sub-salt Jubarte field lost around 30,000 b/d.

In both cases, operator Petrobras attributed the reductions to maintenance.

Nationwide, gas production averaged 97.4mn m³/d, an almost 2pc decrease compared with August but up 9.5pc year-on-year.

Total production in September was 3.008mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d), down by 5.1pc compared with August but up 3pc year-on-year.

Sub-salt behemoth Lula was Brazil's largest oil-producing field in September, averaging 349,100 b/d. Lula was also the largest gas-producing field at 16.4mn m³/d, down slightly August.

The UK's BG was the biggest net producer behind Petrobras with 186,488 boe/d, down from 193,483 boe/d in August. Oil production accounted for 147,759 b/d of that amount.

Spanish-Chinese joint venture Repsol-Sinopec was behind BG with 68,190 boe/d, comprised of 56,529 b/d of oil.

A strike by oil workers that started on 1 November is currently affecting up to 450,000 b/d, according to the oil industry labor federation FUP. Petrobras has not commented on the specific upstream effects of the ongoing strike.