A consortium that includes India's Videocon Industries Ltd and Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has discovered new light crude oil in the Sergipe basin off Brazil's Northeast coast, Videocon said on Tuesday.
Videocon Industries' shares rose as much as 16 per cent in morning trade after the announcement, which it called the largest discovery of petroleum this year by the consortium.
The discovery in the BM-SEAL-11 exploration block is one of several in recent years in an area believed to hold more than 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil, or enough to supply all needs in the US for nearly two months.
Petrobras had in a securities filing last month said drilling in a well on the Farfan prospect found new light crude oil as well as natural gas. It expects to start producing oil in the area in 2018.
Drilling results on the third appraisal well 3-SES-186, located about 10 km from the discovery well Farfan, found presence of a new light oil accumulation with a total thickness of 68 meters in shallower reservoirs, a Videocon statement said.
Petrobras owns 60 per cent of BM-SEAL-11 and is the operator, with the rest being owned by IBV Brasil SA, a 50-50 joint venture between Videocon and BPRL Ventures NV, a unit of the upstream arm of state-run oil marketing company Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd.