Forecasts see Petrobras becoming world’s largest oil producer

Specifically, despite Brazil's negative, biggest-ever oil auctions in November, Petrobras managed to take control of a number of barrels, followed by a $70 billion offshore capital investment spree between 2020 and 2025, solely on field development. This program will have a monumental effect on Petrobras.

Aditya Ravi, vice president of Rystad Energy’s upstream team, specialized in E&P activities in Latin America stated that

Petrobras can, in a matter of years, become the world’s largest oil producer among publically listed companies. The significance is huge and symbolic. We predict that Petrobras alone can boost its production numbers by more than 1.3 million barrels per day over the next decade.

During 2019, the company has been developed from the fifth to the third largest oil producer, with an output of approximately 2.2 million bpd in the third quarter. As it stands, Rosneft and PetroChinatop the list over the world’s largest public E&P companies.

Rystad Energy forecasts that the company may surpass PetroChina in the next months, and has chances to also take the place of the ruling Russian producer Rosneft over the next decade, thanks in no small part to its latest acquisitions.

Recently, Brazilian officials noted that the country wishes to join OPEC. Thus, Brazil's current output could boost OPEC, making it the third largest producer, following Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

According to Reuters, Petrobras expects deep offshore areas to account for 88% of its exploration and production activities next year, up from 55 percent currently. The company says is maintaining its selective strategy in bid rounds, focusing in world class deep and ultra-deep water exploration and production assets.