BRASIL: Libra Field Estimate Doubled To 15 Billion Barrels; MAY Be Biggest Since 1976's Cantarell.

BBC/
         Brasil now estimates its Libra field MAY hold “gigantic” reserves of 15 billion barrels, almost twice initial estimates. However, a national agency believes that 8 billion barrels is closer to its true potential.
      The Libra field is located 183km (114 miles) offshore from Rio de Janeiro.
        At a maximum of 15 billion barrels, Libra would be almost twice as big as the Tupi fields and make it the biggest find in the Americas since Mexico discovered Cantarell in 1976.
         Brasil currently has PROVEN reserves of about 14 billion barrels.

FOR:   The perils of deep-water drilling off Rio's coast, READ ERIK GERMAN:
"More than 200 miles out to sea and several miles below the surface, the pools of oil are thought to be among the biggest discovered on earth in recent decades. Properly tapped, they’ll make fortunes and catapult Brazil into the ranks of the world’s top oil-producing countries.
But as the crude begins to flow, some industry experts say Brazil has understated the risks involved — made apparent by the deep-sea drilling that caused this year’s disastrous spill in the Gulf of Mexico."
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/brazil/101026/brazil-offshore-oil-drilling

BRASIL: Petrobras Raises $70 Billion Usd In World's Largest Share Offering.

BLOOMBERG/ By Peter Millard /
    Despite contrarians who claimed that a mammoth new Petrobras share offering would be under-subscribed, Brasil's national oil giant has sold at least $70 billion usd worth of stock to be used to double output within a decade by tapping new deep water offshore fields in the world's biggest capital sale ever.
    “In Petrobras, you have an obvious growth profile,” said NYC researcher Robbert van Batenburg. “They face growing pains while other guys struggle to replace reserves,” he said.
    However, some investors still feel that the sale will lead to greater governmental control over Petrobras. Brasil increased its stake to 48% from 40% after the share sale, including stakes held by state-owned banks. Before the sale, the government also controlled the company  55.6 % of voting shares.
   Mark Mobius of  Templeton Asset Management is strongly criticizing the sale.“The entire Petrobras issue is an abomination and a terrible violation of shareholder rights. We may be entering an IPO bubble. It means that people are just not looking at the values and irrationally buying these things.”
            http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-24/mobius-calls-petrobras-offering-an-abomination-may-represent-a-bubble-.html

BRASIL: Petrobras To Sell $65 Billion...Or More... Of New Stock.

BLOOMBERG/     In the world's largest public share offering, Petrobras will sell 2.17 billion common shares and 1.58 billion of preferred shares. It hopes to recoup $64.5 billion usd...that could grow to as much as $74.7 billion if there is demand. The money will finance exploitation of recently-discovered oil reserves off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

BRASIL: Petrobras Shares Suffer After $25 Billion Offering Delay.

BLOOMBRG/       Shares of Petrobras have fallen to their lowest price in four weeks after the sale of as much as $25 billion of stock was DELAYED until September because a price hasn’t been set in a related deal to buy oil reserves from the government. Petrobras needs the $25 billion to complete the 2010 portion of a $224 billion spending plan in the deep water pre-salt Tupi Field.  “The market gets a little disappointed,” said NYC asset manager Greg Lesko. “The election has people concerned. As we get closer to that, will there be enough time to get this done?”

BRASIL: BP's Gulf Gusher Forces Petrobras To Explore Security And Allows Rigs Sooner.

                                     LE MONDE/GUARDIAN.UK/ BBC Video/
     Oil giant Petrobras is the company most likely to suffer an accident similar to the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. So it is quietly preparing rescue teams to intervene within 24 hours at any of its rigs on the mainland and within eight hours on even the most remote offshore fields. It has a history of rig disasters - an explosion started a fire on the Enchova Central rig in 1984 and 42 lives were lost during its evacuation; 4 years later another explosion destroyed the same rig, but no one was killed. Petrobras' and Brasil's future depends on deep water drilling because of its much hyped Tupi Presalt fields. A massive oil gusher could also soil the nation's much revered beaches and affect tourism. The so-called Pre-salt fields contain 50 billion to 100bn barrels of proven reserves, which could make Brasil the world's fourth-largest oil producer by 2030.

The BP Gulf Gusher may also allow Petrobras to begin exploration of the Tupi fields sooner as scarce deepwater rigs become available because of Prez. Obama's Gulf of Mexico moratorium.
 BBC VIDEO (1:42) REPORT HERE:   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10318852.stm

BRASIL: Petrobras Denies Seeking Stake In Portugal's Galp Energy.

BLOOMBERG/

Petrobras is now denying that it interested in buying into Portugal’s Galp Energia. As Portugal's biggest oil company, Galp would benefit from Petrobras’s deepwater expertise. Galp has partnered with Petrobras on 54 exploration blocks offshore Brasil, including the massive Tupi Field.

BRASIL: Petrobras Confirms Pre-Salt Tupi Field's Oil Potential.

LAHT/
Petrobras finished drilling a fourth well in the pre-salt Tupi field and the results confirm the area holds between 5 billion and 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Petrobras Refines First Pre-Salt Oil From Tupi Field.

LAHT/
The processing of the first 264,000 barrels from the Tupi field began at the Revap refinery in Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo state.
The company says the oil extracted from Tupi is of high quality (29.2 degrees API) with low sulfur content.
“The oil in the Tupi area also is low in naphthenic acids and (is promising in terms of) profitability, since it (is not the type that) produces diesel, which is the lowest value-added product."