Petrobras brings Brazil's new oil wealth onstream

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – State-run energy company Petrobras on Friday lifted the first subsalt oil from the massive, ultra-deep, offshore Tupi field, an action Brazil’s government hopes will launch a new era for Latin America’s largest economy.

Petrobras (PETR4.SA)(PBR.N) shocked the oil world in November 2007 when it said the field contained up to 8 billion barrels of recoverable light oil and gas, which would make it the second-biggest oil find in 20 years.

“It is a historic moment, a new era,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at an onshore ceremony commemorating the first oil from the Tupi field, after bad weather diverted his plans to visit the platform 300 kilometers (190 miles) offshore.

The Tupi is not be the first subsalt oil produced off Brazil, but it will set the tone for development of the rest of the 200-km-wide subsalt band stretching 800 km down the coast.

Reuters