RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Brazilian energy company Petroleo Brasileiro announced an oil discovery was made while drilling in the Bracuhy well in the Santos Basin.
Petroleo Brasileiro, known also as Petrobras, said it encountered an oil column measuring about 300 feet thick.
Petrobras said there was an estimated 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in the region. It said the discovery, announced Monday, was its third well drilled in the concession. The well is in deep waters about 165 miles off Rio de Janeiro.
Last month, the company reported July oil output from its operations in Brazil was 1.8 million barrels per day, approximately 4.6 percent lower than the previous month. The company said the decrease was in part due to scheduled maintenance at offshore drilling platforms.
An estimated 50 billion barrels of oil lies off Brazil's coast, a volume that's expected to put the Latin American country on par with some of the world's top oil producers.
