The Petrobras Libra Field discovery offshore Brazil in the Santos Basin's prolific pre-salt play has been estimated to contain approximately 8 billion bbl of oil.
Marco Antonio Almeida, Brazil's secretary of oil and gas at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, said yesterday that the Libra Field was independently appraised by Gaffney & Cline at 7.9 billion bbl - considerably more than the previous estimate of 5.5 billion bbl first reported by Haroldo Lima, director general of the government's Agencia Nacional do Petroleo (ANP), and making the field rival the 5-8 billion bbl Tupi Field and become second largest discovery in ten years after Kazakhstan's 17.2 billion bbl Kashagan Field.
Llocated 230 km offshore Rio de Janeiro state northeast of Petrobras' Iara discovery and near the estimated 4.5 billion bbl Franco area that is to provide most of the oil for the Petrobras oil-for-shares program, the Libra area may be included in the first round of tenders for production sharing agreements after the Brazilian Congress approves the new production sharing scheme, Almeida said.
"Libra, which according to estimates has up to 8 billion bbl of recoverable reserves, should be one of the first under the production sharing model," said Almeida, who added that Petrobras' drilling operations in the area should be completed within a month.
He added that he anticipates the first auction of production sharing contracts is likely to be in early 2011 and that he expects the Libra Field along with others to be offered.
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