Brazil ’set to become major fuel exporter’
On May 1st, Brazilian state-owned energy company Petrobras began extraction of the first oil from the pre-salt layer in the Santos Basin, marking a big step towards the country becoming self-sufficient
The platform vessel Cidade de Sao Vicente commenced a 15-month long-duration test in the Tupi field, off the coast of south-east Brazil, in which scientists aim to gather detailed information on the reserves.
Experts estimated that the field contains between five and eight billion barrels of oil and natural gas, which could significantly increase the country’s total reserves.
Petrobras holds a 65 per cent stake in the reserves in block BM-S-11 of the Santos Basin, with British firm BG Group holding a 25 per cent share and Portuguese company Petrogal maintaining a ten per cent interest.
“A lot of people are very excited about it in Brazil,” confirms Paulo Wrobel, representative from the economic and trade sector of the Brazilian embassy.
“They pose quite a challenge technologically and financially but the Brazilian oil company and all the partners are really committed to exploit,” he asserts.
Mr Wrobel says that the size of the reserves has yet to be confirmed, especially as new discoveries are being made all the time.
Recently, evidence of oil was found in the sub-salt reservoirs in the BM-S-9 block in the Santos Basin and the C-M-401 block in the Campos Basin off the coast off Rio de Janeiro.
“There is a consensus now, not only in Brazil but amongst other countries, that they represent probably the largest discovery of oil of the last 25 to 30 years. It is quite a large deposit of oil and gas there,” Mr Wrobel asserts.
He says that for the country to profit from these reserves, the price needs to be set at about $60 (
