Brazilian oil company Petrobras has set a new record for the delivery of natural gas to the market in 2011, partly thanks to a number of new projects starting production.

Petrobras reached an annual flow of 37 million cubic metres of gas offered a day in 2011.

The significant increase of natural gas supply in 2011 was partly due to new operations in the Mexilhão, Uruguá and Tambaú fields in the Santos Basin. Production at the Caraguatatuba Gas Treatment Plant and the Caraguatatuba-Taubaté Gas Pipeline in São Paulo are also contributing factors.

Additionally, the company recorded new monthly and daily records in 2011; the flow offered in December 2011 reached 42.4 million cubic metres per day, while 46.1 million m³ was offered on the 23rd of the same month.

Meanwhile, on 25 February, Petrobras started production at the Cascade field through the Cascade 4 well, connected to the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel platform, located approximately 250 kilometres off the coast of the State of Louisiana.

This is the first FPSO to produce oil and gas in the US Gulf of Mexico, and it is capable of processing 80,000 barrels of oil, and 500,000 cubic meters of gas per day, Petrobras says in a statement.