Texto II
BRAZIL OIL FIND MAY BE WORLD'S 3RD LARGEST
[1] A deep-water exploration area off Brazil's
coast could contain as much as 33 billion
barrels of oil, the head of Brazil's National
Petroleum Agency said Monday. That
[5] would make it the world's third-largest
known oil reserve.
Haroldo Lima cautioned that his information
on the field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro is
unofficial and needs to be confirmed.
[10] The state-run Petrobras oil company
declined comment on what would be the
planet's largest oil find in decades, and its
shares moved wildly in positive territory
after Lima made the comments.
[15] By early afternoon, the company's
American depository shares were up 8.5
percent in New York, or 9.54,to122.39.
Petrobras shares in Brazil went on a wild
rise, fluctuating between 2 percent and 7
[20] percent higher and settling and up nearly 5
percent in late afternoon trading.
Lima told reporters that Petrobras "may
have discovered a huge petroleum field that
could contain reserves large as 33 billion
[25] barrels," amounting to the world's thirdlargest
reserve, according to his
spokesman, Luiz Fernando Manso.
Manso did not provide any details about
where Lima got his information, except to
[30] say it came from "non-official, nonconfirmed
sources."
Lima's agency regulates Brazil's oil
industry, and his comments appeared to
represent confirmation of what experts have
[35] long suspected: That extremely deep
exploration areas hundreds of miles
(kilometers) off the nation's coast may hold
potentially huge reserves.
Brazil's current proven oil reserves are 11.8
[40] billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy
Department. The U.S. has 21.8 billion
barrels in proven reserves.
"You're talking about a reserve the size of
total U.S. reserves," said Tim Evans, an
[45] analyst with Citigroup Inc. in New York. "It's
a big, big number."
If proven, the oil in the Carioca exploration
area would also be five times larger than
the Tupi oil field, whose estimated reserves
[50] of 8 billion barrels were announced by
Petroleo Brasileiro SA in November.
Petrobras also announced a blockbuster
find of natural gas in February in an Atlantic
Ocean field nicknamed Jupiter.
[55] Industry experts say the Tupi and Jupiter
fields alone could turn Brazil into a major oil
and gas exporter and lead to it joining
OPEC.
Fonte: www.cbsnews.com/stories
*OPEC: Sigla em inglês para OPEP - Organização Internacional dos Exportadores de Petróleo.
Assinale a alternativa incorreta.
