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Exploration and production
Brazil: Carioca discovery potentially one of the largest oilfields in the world
PETROBRAS has made a new discovery in the Santos basin that could contain as much as 33bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), according to Haroldo Lima, head of upstream regulator Agência Nacional do Petróleo (ANP). For now, state-controlled Petrobras, which operates the Santos basin's block BM-S-9, with a 45% share, has not confirmed ANP's claim. It says "more conclusive" data are needed and plans to drill further wells before estimating the size of the discovery, which is being referred to as Carioca. Petrobras first informed ANP of the presence of hydrocarbons in BM-S-9 in September, having drilled one well. It began a second well in March, although this is yet to reach its pre-salt target. But if confirmed the prospect would be one of the largest oilfields in the world, the biggest discovery in around 30 years and would transform the country's potential as an oil exporter. It would also dwarf last year's Tupi discovery. Brazil's upstream prospects appeared to have been transformed in November, when Petrobras announced the discovery of the Tupi accumulation in block BM-S-11 of the Santos basin. The field, it said, contains an estimated 5bn-8bn barrels of recoverable oil and could boost Brazil's oil and gas reserves of 14bn boe by more than 50%. That would make it twice the size of the Campos basin's Roncador field – until then, the country's largest field. More significantly, Petrobras claimed Tupi was a small part of a new oil province – "comparable to the most important oil provinces in the world" – ranging through the Espírito Santo, Campos and Santos basins, in deeper horizons than previously explored, under large layers of salt in rock formations about 800 km by 200 km. Evidence supporting that theory emerged in January, when Petrobras announced the discovery of the Jupiter gas and condensate field, also in the Santos basin. The find, according to exploration and production director Guilherme Estrella, "reinforces the notion that there is practically no exploratory risk in pre-salt layer". Carioca, meanwhile, appears to be in a different league to both Tupi and Jupiter and would enhance Brazil's prospects of becoming a significant oil exporter. The country is more or less self-sufficient in oil and aims to be exporting a net 350,000 barrels a day of crude and oil products by 2010. Even if no further discoveries are made – an eventuality that seems very unlikely – Carioca and Tupi should push it far beyond that. The other shareholders in BM-S-9 are the UK's BG Group (30%) and Spain's Repsol YPF (25%). Shareholdings in Tupi are Petrobras, with 65%, BG, with 25%, and Portugal's Petrogal, with 10%.
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