OREANDA-NEWS. Read below the announcement made on Friday (Aug. 08) about our income in the first half of this year:

First half 2014 gross profit was BRL 38.5 billion, up 2% year-on-year, mainly due to higher oil product prices.

Net income was BRL 10.3 billion, down by 25% year-on-year, mainly due to the provision for the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan (PIDV), lower gains from asset sales, and higher dry and non-commercial well write-offs and asset write-offs.

Compared to the previous quarter, operating income (BRL 8.8 billion) rose by 17%, reflecting lower operating expenses, which, in the first quarter, included the provision for the PIDV. However, the quarter's net income (BRL 5.0 billion) dropped 8%, impacted by the lower financial result and the higher income tax bracket.

First half 2014 oil and NGL production in Brazil averaged 1,947,000 barrels per day, a 1.4% rise in output year-on-year. This increase was fueled by new production system start-ups: P-63 (Papa-Terra), P-55 (Roncador), P-62 (Roncador) and P-58 (Jubarte), and by the ramp up of FPSOs Cidade de Itajaí (Baúna), Cidade de Paraty (Lula NE) and Cidade de São Paulo (Sapinhoá).

In June, we set a new monthly output record in the pre-salt at 477,000 barrels of oil per day, and on July 13, we set a daily record of 546,000 bpd with only 25 production wells.

As of June 2014, we had interconnected 30 new wells, which is close to the total number of wells interconnected throughout 2013. This year we have already added three new PLSVs to Petrobras' fleet, increasing the availability of the equipment needed to sustain production growth.

In refining, we increased throughput and oil product production. In June, we set an oil processing record of 2,172,000 barrels of oil per day at Brazilian refineries.

PROEF (Campos Basin Operational Efficiency Increase Program) contributed 96,000 barrels per day in additional oil output during the half-year. Operating efficiency stood at 80% at the Campos Basin Operational Unit (UO-BC) at the end of the period, and, in May, an operating efficiency record was set for the past 47 months, coming in at 81.2%.

The structuring programs (PRODESIN, PROCOP, INFRALOG, PRC-Poço and PRC-Sub) achieved savings of BRL 5.6 billion during the first half of this year.