(Bloomberg)
-- Petrobras, the state-run oil company in Brazil, announced Tuesday it has made
another discovery in what is proving to be one of the country's most productive
offshore regions. The new well is in the Santos Basin, where large pockets of
oil are being found under a layer of salt deep beneath the ocean
floor.
Located 144 miles off the coast of Sao Paulo state, the new well
is more than 18,000 feet deep and holds "good quality" oil, Petrobras said. The
well is in a region of the South Atlantic where seven of Brazil's 18 oil
discoveries this year have been made. The well has still to be declared
commercially viable.
"The well is still being drilled, with the aim of
determining the lower limit of the reservoirs and identifying other possible
zones of interest," said the company in a statement.
The U.S. Geological
Survey assesses there could be as much as 100 billion barrels of offshore oil
yet to be discovered in Brazil. The Santos Basin could hold as much as 46
billion barrels. |