Brazil Pre-Salt Oil Area May Hold 50 Billion Barrels (Update1)

By Katia Cortes and Jeb Blount
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s so-called pre-salt area may contain about 50 billion barrels of oil, enough to place the nation among the world’s top 10 holders of crude reserves, said the head of the petroleum regulator.
Pre-salt oil may boost Brazil’s total reserves to 64 billion barrels, from 14 billion barrels now, National Petroleum Agency head Haroldo Lima told lawmakers today in Brasilia. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company; BG Group Plc; Exxon Mobil Corp.; Repsol YPF SA and Galp Energia SGPS SA are among the companies that own reserves in the region.
“Until we found the pre-salt, our goal was oil self sufficiency,” Lima told the Mines and Energy committee of Brazil’s lower house of Congress today. “Now, our discussion is about what we are going to export.”
Lima and other officials want to increase state control of resources in the pre-salt region, an offshore area that runs for 800 kilometers (497 miles) near Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Oil in the area sits beneath about 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) of water and undersea rock and salt.
Marcio Mello, head of Brazil’s Petroleum Geologists Association, has said the area may hold as much as 100 billion barrels. Brazil’s current reserves are based on Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Standards.