A discovery off Brazil’s Atlantic coast could prove to be the world’s third-largest oil field, the director of Brazil’s National Oil Agency said.
The Carioca field in the Santos Basin off the coast of Sao Paulo state has estimated reserves of 33 billion barrels, Haroldo Lima said on Monday.
“It could be the world’s biggest discovery in the past 30 years,” he said.
Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras, which controls 45 percent of the field, said in a statement that the exact size of the find would be announced in the coming days after further studies were done.
PROFITABLE?
Petrobras engineers said they could not yet say whether extraction would be profitable.
Nevertheless, Petrobras stock rose 5.6 percent, closing at 82.97 reals (US$49.18), after surging as high as 7.7 percent in Sao Paulo.
Lima said that while his information was from Petrobras, it was “unofficial.” Brazilian Energy Minister Edison Labao advised waiting for the official disclosure.
If Lima’s estimates are correct, however, Carioca would rank behind Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar oil field and Kuwait’s Burgan field in size.
Carioca lies about 5,000m deep under a thick layer of salt. The remaining interests in the field are held by British Gas at 30 percent and Spain’s Repsol at 25 percent.
FOUR TIMES LARGER
If Lima’s announcement proves correct, Carioca would be at least four times larger that the Tupi field discovered in November, also in the Santos Basin.
That field, of which Petrobras holds 65 percent, is believed to have oil and gas reserves of 5 billion to 8 billion barrels. Extraction could begin at the earliest there in four or five years, experts said.
Petrobras’ production is 1.9 million barrels per day, while its estimated reserves are 13 billion barrels.
Brazil ranks 17th among the countries with the largest oil reserves.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS