Brazil's oil exports jumped by 94 percent on the year in February, beating the previous record from January, as new offshore production is consistently coming on stream, according to data by the Brazilian trade ministry.
February oil exports stood at 45.7 million barrels, which was 12 percent higher than in January, Reuters reported, citing the government figures.
The surge in oil exports was a function of higher production from the offshore areas in Brazilian waters, where huge oil finds were made in the pre-salt and sub-salt layers in the past few years.
Brazil - which is not part of the non-OPEC group that signed up to OPEC's concerted efforts to cut global supply - had said that it planned to increase its oil production in the coming years, even before the cartel decided to commit to cuts.
And Brazil is apparently sticking to its plans.
In addition, according to Reuters Trade Flows data, Petrobras and other oil producers operating in Brazil - Shell, Repsol, Petrogal and PetroChina - are trying more aggressively to take more export market share in the markets of the U.S. East Coast, in Asia, and in Spain.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its February Oil Market Report that it expected the non-OPEC countries outside the output deal Brazil, Canada and the U.S. to significantly increase production this year, by a combined 750,000 bpd.
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Non-OPEC output growth this year would be mainly in the Americas, the IEA said, with higher prices spurring investments in U.S. light tight oil and long lead-time projects coming online in Brazil and Canada.
Brazil is also expected to be one of the leaders of the cautious recovery of the E&P sector this year. Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in January in its global upstream outlook for 2017 that Brazil's pre-salt, together with the Permian Basin in the U.S., would be the hot oil plays for development this year, with both areas having materiality and one of the lowest development breakevens worldwide.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More