Petrobras Q4 Earnings Soar 38%

Petrobras PBR, Brazil's state-run oil company, said its fourth-quarter profit surged 38% to $6.4 billion, easily topping the consensus estimate of $5.32 billion. The company delivered the report after the close of U.S. markets today. Helped by higher oil prices and increased production, Petrobras said its revenue rose 14% to $128.4 billion in the quarter. Total production of oil and gas rose 2 percent in 2010 from the year previous, hitting 2.6 million barrels a day, according to the Associated Press. Petrobras was able to pare expenses by $300 million in the quarter. For the full-year, the company said its profit jumped 17% to $21.2 billion. Petrobras has previously said it plans to spend $224 billion on exploration projects through 2014, far and away the largest exploration budget of any of the world's major integrated oil companies, as the company taps into Brazil's pre-salt oil fields that are believed to hold vast reserves of oil. The company sold $70 billion in new shares last year, most of them to Brazil's government and related institutions, in the biggest share sale ever. While the funds will be used to fund the company's exploration efforts, Petrobras's free spending ways irked shareholders who were diluted by the secondary offering and are concerned that any future bond offerings by the company could reduce its credit rating. Last year, Petrobras was the worst-performing integrated oil in the world, even trailing BP BP. In December, Petrobras achieved record average production of 2.12 million barrels per day. Accounting for fields in Brazil and abroad, Petrobras produced an average of 2.58 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2010, OilSick.com reported. Petrobras is planning to spend $224 billion through 2014 to boost production at pre-salt fields in Brazil such as Lula, according to OilSlick.com. Petrobras is aiming to double its daily production to 4 million barrels per day by 2020, a mark it said it might be able to achieve earlier than that.