MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil discovers huge offshore natural gas and light oil field

Brazil's government owned Petrobras confirmed this week the discovery of new natural gas reservoirs to the north of the Camarupim field, in the Espírito Santo Basin, off the southeastern coast of the country.

According to the corporation's release the drilling of a pioneer well (4-ESS-177) and an exploratory well (6-ESS-168) confirmed the Espírito Santos Basin's high potential for gas and light crude, which "is expected to result in increased recoverable volumes from the area". The Camarupin field already accounts for a substantial part of the production plans under the Gas Production Anticipation Plan (Plangás). The pioneer well was drilled at a depth of 708 meters from the surface water, off the coast of Espírito Santo, and found 101-meter thick gas-saturated sandy reservoirs at a depth of 3,417 meters. The well, is located in exploratory block BM-ES-5 operated by Petrobras (65%) and the Brazilian subsidiary of American outfit El Paso Corporation (35%). In addition to the gas, the Pioneer well also detected light oil in shallower reservoirs, at a depth of 2,461 meters. This Discovery also reinforces the major potential of prospects that have yet to be drilled in the same bloc The emergence of a new reserve in the Espirito Santo field comes a month after a reserve of up to eight billion barrels was found nearby. No figures have been put on the size of the latest discovery although Petrobras said it offered "high potential". The Brazilian leadership believes the country could in the near future become one of the world's top 10 oil producers. Brazil currently has proven oil reserves of 14 billion barrels, more than half of which have been discovered in the past five years.