Petrobras declares Santos field viable

Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, said it declared the Bauna and Piracaba offshore oil fields in the Santos basin commercially viable, the final step before including them in reserves and initiating full output. The fields contain 196.5 million barrels of light oil at 32 to 34 degrees on the American Petroleum Institute (API) scale, Petrobras said in a statement sent to Brazil’s securities regulator. That is enough to supply all US needs for about 10 days and all Brazilian needs for about 75, according to BP’s Satistical Review of World Energy and Reuters. The fields are part of Petrobras’ 100-per cent-owned BM-S-40 block about 200 kilometers south of the coast of Brazil’s Sao Paulo state and a similar distance east of Santa Catarina state, according to Petrobras and the ANP, Brazil’s oil regulator. The fields are in about 200 meters of water. Bauna, formerly known as the Tiro prospect, contains 113.4 million barrels of oil and natural gas equivalent at 34 degrees API. Piracaba, formerly known as the Sidon prospect, holds 83.1 million barrels of oil and equivalent gas at 32 degrees API.