Brazil oil, gas production down slightly

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BRASILIA, Brazil, April 11 (UPI) -- The Brazilian government reported oil and natural gas production for the year was down slightly but still above levels reported last year.

The Brazilian National Petroleum Agency reported that February oil production was down 1.1 percent compared with January but, at 2.2 million barrels per day, still nearly 7 percent more than February 2011 levels.

Natural gas production in February was down 5.7 percent compared with January but 6.9 percent more than the 2.1 billion cubic feet reported for the same time last year, the Platts news service reports.

More than 91 percent of the oil and 76 percent of the natural gas come from offshore fields and two of the country's largest producers, Bauna and Piacaba, are in the Santos Basin.

Brazil has lucrative oil and natural gas deposits in so-called pre-salt basins in the deep waters of the South Atlantic Ocean. An estimated 50 billion barrels of oil lies off the Brazilian coast.

Chevron and Transocean are accused of violating the country's environmental laws for seeps reported at subsea operations off the coast of Rio de Janiero. State-run oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro reported a seep this week at its Rancador project.