Petrobras (PBR.US) Achieves Record Oil and Gas Production in Q3; Adjusted Net Profit Up 78% Year-on-Year, Raises Full-Year Production and Capital Expenditure Guidance

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Petrobras (PBR.US) released its Q3 2026 financial results after the US market close on November 10. The company reported quarterly sales revenue of $32.962 billion, a year-on-year increase of 40.4%; net profit (attributable to shareholders) of $7.74 billion, up 28.4% year-on-year; net profit excluding one-off items was $9.316 billion, a substantial year-on-year growth of 78.0%. Adjusted EBITDA (excluding one-off items) reached $18.394 billion, up 53.9% year-on-year. Operating cash flow was $12.026 billion and free cash flow was $6.618 billion, growing 22% and 33.2% year-on-year, respectively.

"Our operational performance has been extremely strong," CEO Magda Chambriard stated in the financial report. "This quarter, we achieved record oil and gas production again, pushing the company's production curve to unprecedented levels. The production guidance at the beginning of the year targeted an average of 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2026, but we now expect to reach an average of 3.3 to 3.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. This performance demonstrates the strength of our operational management and our ability to maximize asset potential." She also emphasized that refining business diesel production hit a record this quarter with an average refinery utilization rate of 99%, "which is crucial for ensuring Brazil's energy security during geopolitical crises."

Chief Financial Officer Fernando Melgarejo commented: "This quarter's outstanding operational performance generated strong cash creation, funding investment in accelerating project delivery and allowing new capacity to come online earlier. Operating cash flow also ensured shareholder dividend payments and helped reduce corporate financial debt. We are accelerating profitable investments that compose the company's unique asset portfolio and will continue to create value through growth and operating cash flow."

The performance was underpinned by record production. The company’s average oil and gas equivalent production for the quarter reached 3.512 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, a year-on-year increase of 11.7% and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 5.3%, both new records; diesel production reached 769,000 barrels per day, also a record high, with refinery utilization maintained at 99%. The company attributed this to new platform ramp-ups at pre-salt fields like Búzios and Mero, as well as the highest production efficiency in the past eight years—twelve new production wells came online this quarter (six each in the Campos Basin and Santos Basin). Benefiting from economies of scale, Brazil’s extraction cost fell to $6.12 per barrel of oil equivalent, the lowest since Q3 2024, with pre-salt extraction costs just $4.48 per barrel of oil equivalent.

By segment, the Exploration and Production (E&P) division posted adjusted EBITDA of $12.686 billion for the quarter, up 16.2% year-on-year but down 20.1% quarter-on-quarter, mainly due to a retreat in Brent crude prices (quarterly average $97/barrel, down 7.2% quarter-on-quarter) and around 140,000 barrels per day of crude oil in transit or export not recorded in the period. The Refining, Transport, and Marketing (RTM) division saw adjusted EBITDA of $5.88 billion, up an impressive 363% year-on-year, making it the star segment of the quarter, driven by growth in domestic refined product sales (diesel sales up 14.4% quarter-on-quarter, aviation kerosene up 9.9%), fuel oil exports, and higher crude export margins. The Gas & Low Carbon Energy (G&LCE) division reported adjusted EBITDA of $521 million, a 156.7% increase year-on-year, supported by growth in fixed revenue from LRCAP power capacity reserve contracts effective since August.

Financial robustness continues to improve. As of the end of September, net debt was $57.847 billion, down 4.2% from the previous quarter; the net debt/last-12-month adjusted EBITDA ratio dropped to 1.00x (from 1.53x a year earlier), total debt/last-12-month adjusted EBITDA ratio was 1.21x, with a weighted average debt maturity of approximately 11.8 years and an average cost of 6.7%. The company repaid approximately $2.1 billion in principal and interest this quarter, including $1.2 billion in bond buybacks and redemptions on the international capital market, and simultaneously secured $1.2 billion in international bank financing. The board approved a Q3 shareholder return of 15.3 billion reais (about $2.8 billion); the company paid 90.4 billion reais in taxes to federal, state, and municipal governments this quarter.

It’s noteworthy that the company has significantly raised its full-year guidance: production guidance was increased from the start-of-year 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to 3.3–3.4 million; capital expenditure (in terms of assets under construction) was raised from $19.4 billion to $24–25.5 billion (on a cash basis, from $16.9 billion to $21–22 billion); operating cash flow from $35 billion to $45–50 billion; and leasing payments from $10 billion to $11–11.5 billion. The company emphasized that the increase in capital expenditure does not reflect project overruns, but mainly foreign exchange effects and better-than-planned execution progress—including projects like Búzios, Atapu, Sépia, proprietary FPSO construction exceeding expectations, increased drilling platform availability, more well connections, and the localization of Búzios 9 and 10 FPSO scheduled for 2026.