Petrobras Profit Rises 32% After Crude Oil Prices Surge

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer, posted a better-than-expected 32 percent rise in quarterly profit after oil prices surged and it accelerated drilling at its largest offshore crude discoveries.

Second-quarter net income gained to 10.9 billion reais ($6.86 billion), or 84 centavos a share, from 8.3 billion reais, or 95 centavos, a year earlier, Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras said yesterday. The company was expected to post profit of 83 centavos on an adjusted basis, the average of five analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Earnings on a per-share basis fell after the company sold about $70 billion of shares in September.