"Production of natural gas rose 4.4 per cent in Brazil to 44.8 million cubic metres a day in September 2006.  The government of  Brazil has pledged to raise domestic output to reduce dependence on imports from Bolivia, which recently nationalized oil and gas reserves and raised prices.

Domestic output was 1.8 per cent higher than September's production, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, said in a statement. Petrobras attributed the rise to output from three new wells at the P-50 offshore rig in the Albacora Leste field in the Campos Basin, off the Rio de Janeiro coast. Oil output also rose in October to 1,821,261 barrels a day, up 5.8 per cent from the same month a year ago, as three new offshore wells entered production, according to a spokesman from the government-run oil company.