Brazilian oil gets British backing in prep for boom

A leading British oil and natural gas company will invest $4 billion in Brazil’s...

A leading British oil and natural gas company will invest $4 billion in Brazil’s offshore oil fields, hoping to capitalize on an extraordinary find that could catapult the South American country into the world’s Top 10 oil producers. BG Group Plc. (OTCPK:BRGYY) will prospect for oil in Brazil’s Santos Basin in the newly discovered Tupi oil field, where up to 8 billion barrels of oil is believed to be below the ocean floor. According to Brazilian energy officials, BG Group Plc. has a 25 percent stake in the area being drilled, while Brazil’s state-owned energy giant Petrobras controls 65 percent of the block. The remaining partner in the project is the Portuguese firm Galp Energia. BG Group has played a major role in the development of the Santos Basin, home of the Tupi oil field, which was first discovered in 2006. In August 2008 the British firm discovered a new deposit in the basin and began exploratory drilling a month later. At the time, BG Group Chief Executive Frank Chapman lauded the find, saying, "The exceptional sequence and scale of our drilling success in this area reflects the world-class status of the pre-salt Santos Basin."