Brazil’s state oil company said Thursday that it has discovered as much as 8 billion barrels of light crude in an ultra-deep field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
Enough to transform the country into a major world oil exporter, writes Latin American Times.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s announcement that the Tupi field has between 5 billion and 8 billion (billion = millioner, red.) barrels of recoverable light oil sent Petrobras shares soaring 26 percent in share markets.
The find may tranform Brazil from a medium-level oil producer, into a level like Venezuela, Arab nations and others, said presidential chief of staff Dilma Rousseff.
Brazil became a net exporter of oil last year, but must still import light crude oil for the refined products it needs.
The country produces — and exports — mostly heavy crude oil, which has to be mixed with the light oil in refineries.
