The Brazilian government says huge new oil reserves discovered off its coast could turn the country into one of the biggest oil producers in the world. Petrobras, Brazil's national oil company, says it believes the offshore Tupi field has between 5bn and 8bn barrels of recoverable light oil. A senior minister said Brazilian oil production had the potential to match that of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. The state-controlled company says the results show high productivity for gas and light oil - the best quality oil - which is more valuable and cheaper to refine. Petrobras says the find has the potential to move Brazil into a position where it is one of the top ten oil reserves in the world. Brazil currently has proven oil reserves of 14 billion barrels, over half of which have been discovered in the past five years. Most of Brazil's oil is heavy and found at great depth but even so its reserves have almost doubled in the last ten years, as has output. With the Tupi field potentially equal to 40% of all oil ever discovered here, it seems by any standards a significant moment for Brazil.
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