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| From www.LatinPetroleum.com | ||
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| Petrobras Expects More Oil Finds in Brazil Presalt Area –CFO | ||
State-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, expects to have more discoveries in Brazil's promising presalt oil province, Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa said Tuesday.
"We have every reason to believe that we will still announce great discoveries in that area," Barbassa said during a conference call with investors, analysts and journalists. "Our expectation is very positive."
The company in November had estimated its ultra-deep Tupi field in the presalt area could contain up to 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable reserves.
In January, Petrobras said it made the discovery of a massive gas field in a nearby exploration block that could turn Brazil into a gas exporter.
Barbassa, however, cautioned that exploration in the presalt area bears a great financial risk.
Tupi lies at a water depth of more than 2,000 meters, and then a further 5,000 meters below sand, rocks and salt - making exploration challenging and expensive.
Also, exploration rigs for ultradeep oil areas are currently particularly scarce due to the heating up of the international oil industry, Barbassa added. The company expects to receive further rigs in the coming three years, he said.
"It's our priority to work in the presalt area. But the challenge is how to use scarce equipment," Barbassa said.
Petrobras has already found oil in other parts of the presalt area, but hasn't calculated their possible reserves yet due to a lack of further tests.
The company expects to produce an initial 100,000 barrels of oil a day from Tupi starting in early 2011. After that, it will install larger platforms at Tupi, Barbassa said.
Peak output at Tupi could reach up to 1 million barrels a day in 2015 to 2020, BG Group PLC Chief Executive Frank Chapman said in February.
Petrobras holds 65% in Tupi, while BG Group owns 25% and Portugal's Galp Energia SGPS SA (GALP.LB) owns 10%.
Before the initial production, Petrobras will produce some oil from Tupi in a test phase, Barbassa said.
"We will install a rig and switch on only one well in order to define the size of the reservoir and what investments are needed," Barbassa said.
The CFO said that media reports last month about Tupi having much larger reserves were misleading.
BG in February also had said Tupi holds overall reserves of up to 30 billion barrels. But only about 25% of that are recoverable reserves, Barbassa said. The reports had mixed up recoverable reserves with overall reserves, he said.
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LatinPetroleum.com, www.latinpetroleum.com, Brazil news, 4.March.2008, Source: Bernd Radowitz, Dow Jones Newswires | ||