Conflicting News About Discovery of a Gigantic Brazilian Oil Field With 33 Billion Barrels

Brazil discovers World's 3rd-largest oil and gas reserves

www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-15 10:17:59

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 14 (Xinhua) --

Brazil's state-owned Petrobras, BG Group and Repsol have discovered what could be the world's third-largest oil and gas reserves, Haroldo Lima, director of the National Oil and Gas Agency (ANP), which regulates the sector in the country, said on Monday.

In a seminar at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio, Lima stressed that the information has not been released "officially" yet.

He added that, if confirmed, the field, with an estimated volume of 33 billion barrels, in the deep waters of the Santos Basin, in southeastern Brazil, would be the world's biggest oil and gas discovery of the past 30 years.

According to the ANP director, the field, temporarily named "Sugar Loaf," in reference to Rio's landmark, would be five times larger than Tupi, the giant field discovered in November 2007.

Tupi is regarded as the largest oil and gas reserve ever found in Brazil, bearing an estimated volume of 5-8 billion barrels of light oil.

Petrobras' press office has not confirmed the discovery yet, but informed that the Sugar Loaf field is located in block BMS-9 of the Santos Basin, west of the BMS-11, where Tupi was discovered.

ANP added that the field could not be classified as an "exploitation field" because it has not been declared commercially viable. The first trace of the existence of oil and gas in the field, located in the pre-salt layer, was found in Aug. 2007, but members of the consortium have not released any prospects of its total volume so far.

The new field is also close to block BMS-24, where Petrobras announced at the beginning of this year to have discovered Brazil's largest natural gas reserve, in the Jupiter field.

Editor: Du Guodong

Brazil's Petrobras denies giant oil field discovery

www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-15 09:15:36

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 14 (Xinhua) --

Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras denied Monday an earlier announcement of the discovery of a gigantic oil and gas field in southeastern Brazil.

The salt layer of the second well drilled in block BMS-9 of the announced oil field has not even been reached yet, and the huge field, if it does exist, lies below the salt layer, the company said in a statement.

The announcement of the discovery had been made earlier Monday by the director of the government's National Oil and Gas Agency Haroldo Lima. The agency is in charge of regulating the oil and gas sector in the country.

The oil field in the Santos Basin in southeastern Brazil appears to be the world's third-largest oil and gas reserve, bearing an estimated volume of 33 billion barrels, Lima said.

Petrobras' statement said that the first well drilled in the area in September 2007 has produced promising results, which have been already released to the market and still need to be confirmed by further drillings.

The drilling of the second well started on March 22 and has not yet reached the necessary depth to reach the salt layer that lies above the reserve. The layer is two km wide, according to the statement.

"The exploitation activity includes the drilling of new wells, long-lasting proofs and new geological studies to ensure the broadness of the discovery, at the end of which the results will be informed to the market," the statement added.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil, which supervises the operation of the stock market in the country, criticized the announcement by the ANP director, which prompted a sudden climb of Petrobras' stocks on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa).

The release of relevant information made by "outsiders" is "harmful" to the market's operation, the commission said.

Editor: Du Guodong

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