A joint venture of Videocon Industries and Bharat Petroleum has struck oil off the Brazilian coast, the two companies announced today.
IBV Brasil Petroleo Limitada, the equal joint venture company, has a 30 per cent interest in the block named ES-M-661 in the Espirito Santo Basin, offshore Brazil.
Petrobras, the national oil company of Brazil, is the operator of the block and holds a 40 per cent interest in it. Another company called Anadarko has the other 30 per cent.
The exploration well, christened ‘Grana Padano’, was drilled up to a depth of 2,961 metres under the sea bed, where the water depth was 1,208 metres. The drillers encountered an oil column of 30 metres at depths between 2,008 metres and 2,047 metres.
“The consortium will continue activities in the block, and intends to submit to the national agency of petroleum, natural gas and bio fuels a proposed evaluation plan,” an identical press release issued today by Videocon and BPCL said.
The BPCL stock was up 0.96 per cent at Rs 784 in afternoon trade. Similarly, the Videocon stock was marginally up at Rs 174.