MNeagle
4th June 2010, 10:52 AM
June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer, said it found light oil almost three miles below the ocean floor at the Marlim field off the country’s southeastern coast. The shares rose.
The Brava discovery may hold about 380 million barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas in the pre-salt layer, equal to 2.6 percent of the company’s proven reserves, Petrobras said today in a regulatory filing. The proximity to existing production equipment will help speed up output, Petrobras said.
The company plans to more than double oil production to 5.7 million barrels a day by 2020 as it develops fields sitting below a layer of salt in deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The company is spending as much as $220 billion to finance offshore oilfields including Tupi, the Western Hemisphere’s largest discovery since Mexico’s Cantarell in 1976.
Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras was the second-biggest gainer in Sao Paulo’s Bovespa index, climbing 32 centavos, or 1.1 percent, to 29.42 reais in at 11:43 a.m. New York time.
The oil discovery, along with the company’s decision this week to hire six banks to manage a $25 billion stock sale, helped boost the shares, said Lucas Brendler, who helps oversee 7 billion reais at Banco Geracao Futuro de Investimentos, including Petrobras stock. The announcement on the banks signals Petrobras may hold the sale as early as next month, Brendler said in a telephone call from Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Hired Banks
Petrobras said June 2 it hired Banco Bradesco SA, Citigroup Inc., Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit, Morgan Stanley and Banco Santander SA as global coordinators of its share sale.
The Rio de Janeiro-based company already produces oil from shallower reservoirs above the salt layer at the Marlim field. Brava is 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) from the nearest production platform, the company said.
Petrobras said it will submit a development plan for Brava to the nation’s oil regulator “shortly.â€
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4WXSJ54rbCA&pos=7
The Brava discovery may hold about 380 million barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas in the pre-salt layer, equal to 2.6 percent of the company’s proven reserves, Petrobras said today in a regulatory filing. The proximity to existing production equipment will help speed up output, Petrobras said.
The company plans to more than double oil production to 5.7 million barrels a day by 2020 as it develops fields sitting below a layer of salt in deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The company is spending as much as $220 billion to finance offshore oilfields including Tupi, the Western Hemisphere’s largest discovery since Mexico’s Cantarell in 1976.
Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras was the second-biggest gainer in Sao Paulo’s Bovespa index, climbing 32 centavos, or 1.1 percent, to 29.42 reais in at 11:43 a.m. New York time.
The oil discovery, along with the company’s decision this week to hire six banks to manage a $25 billion stock sale, helped boost the shares, said Lucas Brendler, who helps oversee 7 billion reais at Banco Geracao Futuro de Investimentos, including Petrobras stock. The announcement on the banks signals Petrobras may hold the sale as early as next month, Brendler said in a telephone call from Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Hired Banks
Petrobras said June 2 it hired Banco Bradesco SA, Citigroup Inc., Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit, Morgan Stanley and Banco Santander SA as global coordinators of its share sale.
The Rio de Janeiro-based company already produces oil from shallower reservoirs above the salt layer at the Marlim field. Brava is 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) from the nearest production platform, the company said.
Petrobras said it will submit a development plan for Brava to the nation’s oil regulator “shortly.â€
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4WXSJ54rbCA&pos=7