MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras announces new oil discovery in ultra deep waters

Brazil's government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras announced this week the presence of oil traces in pre-salt reservoirs, in ultra deep waters off shore Sao Paulo in the Santos Basin.

"Preliminary analyses indicate oil gravity is between 25 and 28 ºAPI, comparable to that of the other pre-salt oils found in the Santos Basin", said an official release from Petrobras. The well was drilled in block BM-S-8 by a consortium formed by Petrobras (66%, operator), Shell (20%), and Galp Energia (14%) from Portugal. The pioneer well is located some 250 km off the coast of the state of São Paulo, at 2,139 meters from the water line. Drilling was completed on May 18, at a depth of 6,773 meters and the discovery was proved via an oil sampling by means of a formation test in reservoirs situated at a depth of nearly 6,000 meters. The Consortium is preparing a Discovery Assessment Plan to be sent to the NPA, as provided for in the Concession Agreement, giving continuity to the investment activities for block BM-S-8, concludes the release. The discovery is close to the Tupí deposit, which according to Petrobras has reserves equivalent to 8 billion barrels. When the discovery was announced last November it was described as the major deposit find in the western hemisphere since the Cantarell deposits in the Gulf of Mexico back in 1976. Earlier this week the Brazilian press indicated that Petrobras with a market value of 295.6 billion US dollars had surpassed Microsoft, which has a market value of 274 billion US dollars. Petrobras automatically became the third largest corporation in the western world behind ExxonMobil Corp. (489 billion) and General Electric Co. (320 billion).