MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil’s Petrobras admits second oil spill in less than a week

Corporation admits it is not possible to estimate how much oil leaked

Brazil's state-run energy giant Petrobras on Tuesday reported that 160 barrels of crude oil may have spilled from a deep-water well off Sao Paulo state but said the situation was under control.

A company statement said a production string rupture of the FPWSO Dynamic Producer (vessel platform) was detected early Tuesday, roughly 300 kilometres off the coast of Sao Paulo state, where water depth reaches 2,140 meters.

It said the well was automatically shut down after the rupture by the safety system and has been secured. “A preliminary estimate indicates that 160 barrels of oil may have spilled. There is no possibility of the oil reaching the Brazilian coast,” Petrobras said.

It added that an investigation was launched to determine the cause of the leak.

Petrobras said it notified the Brazilian Navy, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP). It was the second oil spill in Brazil in less than a week.

Last Thursday, Transpetro, a Petrobras subsidiary, said it had detected a spill off the coast of Rio Grande do Sul state but did not know how much had spilled.

Petrobras transportation unit said it was not possible to estimate how much oil had leaked but said personnel and equipment were deployed to contain and remove the spill off the coast of the southern state.

In November, another oil spill was detected in a well operated by US energy company Chevron near the Frade field, 370 kilometres northeast of the Rio de Janeiro coast. The spill was eventually contained and Chevron was subject to several environmental fines.

The case was a wake-up call for Brazil as it prepares to tap huge underwater oil fields which ANP says hold reserves that could surpass 100 billion barrels of high-quality recoverable crude. These fields are off Brazil's southeast Atlantic coast beneath kilometres of ocean, bedrock, and hot salt-beds.

In 2010, Petrobras was the world's third biggest oil producer in terms of market value at 228 billion dollars. By late last month it had fallen to 5th place, with its value down to 156 billion, according to the daily newspaper O Globo.