French oil major Total is interested in entering the upstream offshore Brazil to help develop the huge resources in the Santos basin and is also eying new acreage in Venezuela, the companys CEO Christophe de Margerie said
Since late 2007, Petrobras and its partners-including the UK's BG Group and Spain's Repsol YPF - have discovered more than 12 billion recoverable barrels of oil in the pre-salt province of Santos basin.
Petrobas needs financing to develop the reserves. Total officially announced that it is interested either in entering existing discoveries or taking part in the next bids on new acreage.
Total's CEO also said the company would be interested in bidding for new exploration acreage in the extra heavy crude oil Orinoco Belt in Venezuela.
De Margerie said Total was right to stay in Venezuela despite the nationalization by President Hugo Chavez of large swathes of the country's oil industry in 2007.
Chavez nationalized oil fields when crude prices were on what looked like an unstoppable bull run, and as a result ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left
Venezuela and are still fighting legal battles over projects. It was reported in January this year that Chavez and PDVSA, the state-run oil company, were looking for new bids to develop fields from both global majors and state-run oil companies.
Author:
Ksenia Kochneva
