Brazil’s massive oil discoveries in last November have been one of the largest oil finds in recent times. The two exploratory wells which are 280km off Brazil’s coast in the Santos Basin are estimated to have reserves between 5bn and 8bn barrels of oil in one of the fields alone.
The commencement of operations in the Tupi and Jupiter fields will enhance substantially Brazil’s oil and gas reserves by more than 50%. The oil production from these wells is expected to begin by 2011 with 100,000 barrels a day. At the time of discovery, it should not be forgotten that, an over excited chief of staff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff claimed that Brazil would be producing oil in the levels of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
But the latest developments in that front is not very satisfactory since Executives at Halliburton, the US oil industry services company, and Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil group, are summoned to give evidence to Brazilian police in regards to the theft of computer equipment containing secret information on the discoveries of prospective massive oil and natural gas deposits.
In the light of the police discounting the idea of an ordinary robbery, it would be a cause of grave concern, as even expressed by the Brazilian president. Three laptops and two computer hard drives were stolen as they were being transported between Petrobras installations in Rio de Janeiro last week. There is widespread speculation of these items were in the possession of Halliburton when they were stolen, a confirmation on this is awaited from the Brazilian Police.
The booty is understood to contain information related to the technical details about the discoveries of Tupi and Jupiter fields. The president stated that the stealing of the information related to both fields situated under 2,000 meters of sea water and a further 4,000 meters below the sea bed is tantamount to that of leaking state’s secrets. As oil has become the crux of the matter in recent times, whether it is in climate change or energy generation, such developments are bound to polarize countries involved in these situations.