MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Exxon finds evidence of oil in Brazil's pre-salt basin

Exxon Mobil Corp., Hess Corp. and Petrobras found evidence of oil at an offshore block in Brazil's Santos Basin in an area close to the largest oil discovery in three decades in the American continent.

The discovery in the so-called "pre-salt cluster" was in water 7,294 feet deep and in a well expected to have a final depth of 16,414 feet, announced Brazil's National Petroleum Agency. The companies haven't determined if the find can be developed commercially. The so-called Azulao-1 well in the BM-S-22 block operated by Exxon Mobil is adjacent to the Carioca field, where Petrobras, the Brazilian state-controlled oil company, has found oil. It is also about 25 miles south of Tupi, a field that Petrobras says holds as much as 8 billion barrels of oil, making it the biggest discovery in the Americas since 1976. "The drilling of this well will continue until the targeted depth is reached. We are keeping with plans to drill another well after that", Exxon Exploracao Santos Brasileira, the Exxon unit, said in a statement. The so-called subsalt wells extend over a distance of 800 kilometres along the southern Brazilian coast in ultra-deep waters.