Repsol Estimates Brazil Carioca Find Reserves AT 765M BOE

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)--Spanish oil firm Repsol YPF SA (REP) estimates that the Carioca discovery in Brazil holds 765 million barrels of oil equivalent, or BOE, in recoverable oil reserves, Repsol's Exploration and Production Director Nemesio Cuesta said over the weekend. (continue here)
Repsol and its partners in BM-S-9 block in the promising subsalt region of Brazil's Santos Basin had discovered Carioca in September 2007.

Oil in Brazil's subsalt region lies at water depths of about 2,000 meters, and several thousand meters further under the sea bed below layers of rock, sand and salt, making production challenging.

Jason Kenney, oil analyst at ING said 765 million BOE is "a big find. It is not giant, but it is big and most oil majors would be very happy with that kind of discovery."

Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, holds a 45% operating stake in the block, while Repsol holds 25%, and BG Group PLC (BG.LN) another 30%.

The consortium has made three other discoveries in the BM-S-9 block, one of them the giant Guara field, which is estimated to hold up to 2 billion BOE in recoverable reserves, the companies have said in September.

Guara is actually a better find than the even larger nearby Tupi field, Cuesta said, as it has shown a superior productivity in production tests.

"There is a lot of value in these [Brazilian] discoveries," Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau said over the weekend.

Guara is slated to enter commercial production in January 2013, with an initial output of 120,000 BOE a day, Repsol's Cuesta said. Before that, during five months in the second and the fourth quarter of 2010, the companies plan to carry out a long-term production test at Guara.

The companies plan a long-term production test at Carioca between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011.

Cuesta couldn't give a reserve estimate for the Iguacu and Abare West discoveries that were also made in the BM-S-9 block. But he added that the four discoveries in the block are now believed to be separate structures, not one linked oil field as had been suspected earlier on.

In February, Cuesta had said the entire BM-S-9 block may hold between 2 billion and 6 billion BOE, but that estimate hasn't yet been confirmed by operator Petrobras.

Carioca lies at a water depth of 2,140 meters, and 273 kilometers from the coast of Sao Paulo state.

Company Web site: http://www.repsol.com