UPDATE 3-Brazil ANP head criticized over oil field estimate

Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:45pm EDT
(Adds fresh Petrobras comments, paragraphs 9-10)
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 15 (Reuters) - Brazil's stock market regulator criticized the head of the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) for stating reserve estimates of a potentially giant oil find and federal prosecutors said on Tuesday they may investigate.
The government's ANP has distanced itself from a statement made on Monday by its chief, Haroldo Lima, which put Carioca field reserves at 33 billion barrels of oil equivalent, citing data obtained informally from Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research)(PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research).
The Rio de Janeiro federal public prosecutors' office said it would analyze media reports on Lima's statement regarding the Carioca find to decide whether to launch an inquiry.
Stock market regulator CVM said it considered the announcement "harmful" as it involved public companies and was made by a noncorporate official. It said in a statement it had asked Petrobras to clarify the case and will mull unspecified other measures in the meantime.
If confirmed, the new deep-water, sub-salt field off the coast of Sao Paulo state would be the largest find in the world in the past 30 years. [ID:nL1576374]
The ANP said the data was in the public domain after circulating in the media since February.
Petrobras, which saw its shares soar on Monday and add another 1.4 percent on Tuesday, has said more studies were required on the find without denying the estimate altogether.
Petrobras Chief Executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli told Reuters on Tuesday in Cancun, Mexico, that the oil giant was still drilling and it would likely take around three months to evaluate the size of the Carioca oil find.
"We are in the middle of drilling activities. We are 3,000 meters deep. We will probably go to 7,000 meters," Chief Executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli told Reuters at a meeting in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
"It will take probably one or two months to finish drilling and then we have a time for analysis, which means that probably ... three months from now we'll have information to see what's happening," he said.
"NO ANNOUNCEMENT"
The head of Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) gave an unofficial estimate of the Carioca reserves at 33 billion barrels of crude oil equivalent.
Local news agency G1 also quoted exploration and production director Guilherme Estrella as saying that studies on the field were still "generic" and more concrete results were expected in a three months' time, after well tests.
Stock prices of Petrobras' Carioca partners BG (BG.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Repsol-YPF (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) jumped on Tuesday even after the ANP played down the announcement.
Lima denied on Tuesday that he made any announcement as the estimates were published in the World Oil industry magazine in February.
"Is it that the North American specialized public has the right to know about things happening in Brazil, is it something that the Brazilian specialized audience cannot know? ... I made no announcement," Lima said during a hearing on an unrelated issue before the Senate's economic affairs commission.
He did not explain why he initially cited the operator of the Carioca field as the informal source of the estimate and denied any attempts to influence stock prices.
"There was no speculation involved," Lima said. "The idea of (influencing the) stock exchange just wasn't there ... I don't even know where this thing called the exchange is," said Lima. (Reporting by Denise Luna and Andrei Khalip in Rio, Noel Randewich in Cancun; Editing by Gary Hill)