In July, Brazilian oil and gas production hit a record level, beating out a previous record set in June, according to the nation’s oil regulator ANP this week.

The data showed the nation’s output added up to 4.48 million barrels of oil equivalent per day last month. On a yearly basis, just crude production increased by 18.6% to 3.51 million barrels per day (bpd).

The regulator added that natural gas production rose 13.6% to 154.08 million cubic meters per day.

The nation’s crude production will be boosted by private oil companies by up to 75% from 1.221 million bpd this year, to 2.123 million bpd by 2030, according to predictions from research and consulting group Wood Mackenzie.

Wood Mackenzie went on to predict that due to their partnerships with state-run Petrobras in pre-salt fields, among the top producers will likely be the international oil majors, such as Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies, Repsol Sinopec Brasil S.A., and Petrogal.

The Brazilian pre-salt region is an offshore reserve rich in oil which is trapped beneath a 2,000m thick layer of salt, and which was first explored by Petrobras in 2006.

By the end of the decade, it is expected that an accelerating rate of production by Petrobras will lead to output increasing by 61% from the present 2.15 million bpd to 3.46 million bpd.

Petrobras announced last year that it will be increasing investment for 2023-2027 by roughly 15% to $78 billion, of which it plans to allocate $64 billion to exploration and production operations.