Brazil: Massive oil discovery off Atlantic coast.

From Earth Times:

Rio de Janeiro - Brazil's state oil agency ANP Friday announced the discovery of a new giant oil reserve off the Atlantic coast.

The deepwater field, called Libra, could contain reserves of between 3.7 billion and 15 billion barrels, the agency said.

An evaluation provided by the certification firm Gaffney, Cline & Associates, showed the most probable quantity is somewhere between, with 7.9 billion barrels.

"It is important to emphasize, that this Libra field alone could contain more than Brazil's current known reserves of 14 billion barrels," the ANP said.

The field lies about 180 km off the cost of Rio de Janeiro, the agency said. The estimated volume is larger than the coastal Tupi field, which holds an estimated 5 to 8 billion barrels.

The announcement is the latest in a series of mammoth Brazilian oil discoveries since 2007. Most of them lie up to 7,000 metres deep and under a thick layer of salt, making them difficult and cost intensive to mine.

The months-long oil BP oil gusher off the US Gulf Coast earlier this year raised anew worries about the environmental and economic risk of drilling at such ocean depths.