MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras drills in Amazon basin.

Brazilian government oil company Petrobras next year will be drilling new wells in the Urucu southeast basin in the Amazon jungle, 650 kilometers from Manaos.

Seismic surveys reveal the potential for a new field equivalent to the total area of the Urucu basin, Brazil's mainland largest natural gas reserve with 77 billion cubic meters.

"Conditions are similar. We have indications that we could be facing a new Urucu in the same region", admitted Petrobras General Manager Sven Wolf, responsible for exploration and production.

Petrobras project involving 15 million US dollars comes at a moment when the regional production of Urucu has peaked with a daily production of 59,000 barrels and ten million cubic meters of natural gas.

Urucu province represents 4% of Brazilian oil production of 1,5 million barrels per day with the advantage that the oil is much lighter, 49 degrees in the American Petroleum Institute scale.

"It's high quality oil and natural gas reserves in the area are only second to off-shore Sao Paulo (143 billion cubic meters) and off shore north Fluminense (142 billion cubic meters)", points out Mr. Wolf.

Urucu basin was began in 1988 and the new drilling should help to restore the area's volume of production estimate Petrobras oil experts.