Brazil's new oil discovery

AP/CNN:

A huge offshore oil discovery could raise Brazil's petroleum reserves by a whopping 40 percent and boost this country into the ranks of the world's major exporters, officials said.

The government-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, said the new "ultra-deep" Tupi field could hold as much as 8 billion barrels of recoverable light crude, sending Petrobras shares soaring and prompting predictions that Brazil could join the world's "top 10" oil producers.

Petrobras President Sergio Gabrielli said Thursday the oil from ultradeep areas, including the Tupi field, would give Brazil the world's eighth-largest oil and gas reserves.

"Brazil's reserves will lie somewhere between those of Nigeria and those of Venezuela," Gabrielli said at a news conference.

Petrobras says the Tupi field, off Brazil's southeastern Atlantic coast, has between 5 billion and 8 billion barrels -- equivalent to 40 percent of all the oil ever discovered in Brazil.

Brazil's total oil reserves currently rank 17th in the world, with 14.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Gabrielli said.

Thursday's news of the discovery rocked a country that became a net oil exporter only last year but must still import light crude oil for the refined products it needs. Brazil produces -- and exports -- mostly heavy crude oil, which has to be mixed with the light oil in refineries.

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News like this makes me angry with Democrats and environmentalist who are blocking similar discovers off the coast of the US. They conspire to starve the US of energy while China is drilling off the coast of Cuba and closer to the US than the fields we should be exploring. It is just outrageous that the Democrats and environmentalist are continuing to make us dependent on foreign sources when we could be brining in similar fields as well as the field in Anwar. The good news about this field is that it will lower the leverage that kooks like Chavez have over our oil supply, but he would have none at all if the Democrats were not blocking exploration in the Gulf and other off shore areas. It is just plain nuts. There is no rational reason to block this exploration. It is going to happen elsewhere and we are going to have to pay the price for not doing it here.