Brazilian national oil and gas company Petrobras has reported a 7.6% increase in net income for Q3 2024, reaching $5.87bn (33.85bn reais) from $5.54bn in the same quarter of the previous year.

Net income increased due to improved financial results and lower operating expenses.

The company's sales revenue declined by 8.6% to $23.36bn in Q3 2024 from $25.55bn in Q3 2023.

Recurring adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for Q3 2024 was $11.61bn, down 15.2%% from $13.69bn in Q3 2023.

Operating expenses were $3.6bn in Q3 as against $3.59bn in Q3 2023.

Capex for Q3 totalled $4.45bn, up from $3.39bn in the same period of last year. the majority of these investments were directed towards developing production in Brazil's pre-salt fields in the Santos and Campos basins.

The company’s total production for Q3 2024 was 2.68 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (mboe/d), a 6.5% decline year-on-year.

However, the company expects production to remain within its five-year strategic plan target of 2.8mboe/d.

Its sales revenue in Q3 2024 saw a marginal dip of 0.4% against $23.46bn in Q2 2024. During Q2, the company posted a net loss of $344m.

Sales revenue for the nine months of 2024 was $70.60bn, a fall of 6.2% from $75.30bn during the same period of 2023.

Net income for nine months of 2024 was $10.30bn, a year-on-year decline of 44.7% from $18.62bn.

Petrobras CFO and investor relations director Fernando Melgarejo said: “In this third quarter of 2024, we achieved consistent financial results amid a context of declining Brent prices, which we were able to offset with higher sales volumes of oil products.”

He added: “We are also pleased to announce that we made investments of $4.5bn in this third quarter, around 30% more than last quarter. In the first nine months of the year, Petrobras investments amounted to $10.9bn. This demonstrates our commitment to delivering our projects and executing our Strategic Plan with diligence.”

Petrobras stated that it achieved significant operational milestones, with the start of production on the Marechal Duque de Caxias platform vessel in the Mero field and the early operation of the FPSO Maria Quitéria in the Jubarte field.

The platform ship Almirante Tamandaré also arrived in Brazil from China, and is set to be installed in the Búzios Field.