By Jeb Blount
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 5 (Reuters) - Brazil's oil and naturalgas output rose to a 26-month high in March as companies such asRoyal Dutch Shell Plc and BG Group Plc made upfor stagnant output from state-run oil company Petrobras oil regulator ANP said on Monday.
Brazil produced an average 2.64 million barrels of oil anequivalent natural gas a day (boepd) in March, 13 percent morethan the year-earlier month, the highest level since January2012 and the second-highest monthly result in Brazil's history.The output was owned by 47 companies.
Output in March was up 1.15 percent from February.
After nearly two decades of direct participation in Brazil'soil industry, oil output by foreign companies is starting tomake a significant impact on overall production. These companieshelped boost Brazilian production and royalty payments even asPetroleo Brasileiro SA, as state-run Petrobras is officiallyknown, saw production from older fields decline and it struggledto bring new fields on line.
While Petrobras remained the dominant producer in the monthwith 2.27 million boepd, its share of total national outputslipped to 86 percent from 93 percent a year earlier and from 87percent in February, according to ANP data and Reuters.Petrobras average daily output in the first three months of theyear was the lowest in five years.
Other companies stepped in to fill the gap boosting outputto a level less than 40,000 boepd below the January 2012 recordof 2.68 million boepd.
Britain's BG Group hung on to its No. 2 producer spotwith 70,879 boepd of output in March, 83 percent more than ayear earlier and little-changed from February.
No. 3 producer, Norway's Statoil ASA saw outputrise more than 10-fold from March 2013 to 47,497 boepd. StatoilBrazil output was 2.5 percent greater than in February.
Brazil's No. 4 producer Shell saw output more thandouble from a year earlier to 42,726 boepd, 50 percent more thanthe previous month. (Editing by Eric Walsh)
