Brazil's crude oil production in November topped 3 million barrels per day for the first time ever, the National Petroleum Agency reported, adding that total oil and gas production rose to 3.95 million barrels of oil equivalent daily - also a record-breaking figure.

The strong output result came on the back of ongoing ramp-up of production at eight new floating production, storage, and offloading facilities, S&P Global Platts reports, citing ANP data. The ramp-up added more than 100,000 bpd to the country's total production between October and November. The annual increase in production exceeded 20 percent.

The presalt zone has become the main contributor to growth in Brazil's crude oil production. In fact, it accounts for about two-thirds of the country's November total, at 2.061 million bpd. The biggest producing field, Lula, is in the presalt zone. It produced 1.063 million bpd of crude last month. The second and the third-largest producing fields were also in the presalt zone, which has garnered significant attention from supermajors as the next hot spot for oil production growth.

The hot spot became hotter earlier this year, after the Brazilian government and Petrobras settled their dispute over an area in the presalt zone that could contain billions of untapped oil reserves. Petrobras raked in $9 billion from the settlement while the government prepared for as much as $27 billion in signing bonuses from the tender it planned for the transfer-of-rights area.

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The tender took place in November and the government only raised $16 billion from the sale of rights to two of the four blocks offered. The winning bids came from Chinese companies: CNODC and CNOOC. They were the only ones that bid in the tender while other majors apparently decided to focus on current projects instead.

The two blocks are part of the Buzios field, which already produces some 600,000 bpd and is among the most promising parts of the presalt zone.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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