MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras testing discovery of “huge” natural gas reserves in Peru’s Amazon

Peruvian president Alan García anticipated the announcement

Brazil's Petrobras said on Friday it is still studying drilling results from lot 58 in Peru's Amazon and has yet to estimate natural gas deposits there, a day after Peruvian President Alan Garcia said the company struck a large find.

“The samples are under analysis phase so that the commerciality of the well can be confirmed and the estimation of natural gas volume can be calculated,” Petrobras said in a statement.

On Thursday, Garcia said that Petrobras, which has expanded at home and abroad in recent years by emphasizing exploration, had discovered about 1 trillion cubic feet in the first of five wells being drilled in the lot.

“We can confirm that a large quantity of gas has been discovered,” Garcia said on RPP radio. “They are talking about 1 trillion and a half cubic feet in the first well which some experts at Perupetro say could reach more than 5 tcf.”

Perupetro is Peru's agency that sells oil and gas concessions.

Garcia said a final confirmation on the find is expected later this week.

Peru, which is trying to become a net energy exporter, is encouraging companies to invest in the resource-rich Amazon jungle -- thought to have vast and largely untapped reserves of oil and natural gas.

As a whole, two competing estimates say Peru has between 8.79 tcf and 14.1 tcf in proven natural gas reserves. President Garcia announced that lot 56 holds gas reserves equivalent to 2.5 tcf; lot 88, over 8 tcf and lot 57, two tcf.