MOSCOW, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Russian-British oil joint venture TNK-BP announced it bought a 45 percent stake in a Brazilian oil company working in the Amazon River basin.
TNK-BP Chief Executive Officer at Mikhail Fridman said the company was looking forward to a sustained partnership with Brazilian company HRT O&G.
"The project will give us access to significant new resources in one of the world's fastest growing markets," he said.
Independent audits put the total resource capacity of the 21 oil and gas exploration blocks owned by HRT at around 789 million barrels of oil equivalent. The blocks cover roughly 18,725 square miles.
The reserves in the Solimoes Basin of the Amazon are relatively unexplored because of concerns about the environmental impact of oil and gas exploration in the region. Brazil, the Financial Times reported, is on pace to become of the largest oil producers in the world.
TNK-BP in July announced a similar deal for exploration blocks along the Amazon River through a partnership with Brazil's Petro Energia.
Scientists using historic satellite data determined changing climate and altered rainfall patterns could result in rainforests transitioning to grasslands or woody savannas. This, researchers found, could limit the amount of carbon stored in the rainforest.
