By IANS/EFE,
Rio de Janeiro : Brazilian independent oil company OGX has said it found hydrocarbons in a block it controls in the Campos basin, off Brazil’s coast.
A 46-meter column of hydrocarbons was found in a block in which the company has a 100 percent stake and had already found traces of crude, OGX said in a statement Monday.
The well is some 79 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state at a depth of 150 meters.
Drilling will continue until a depth of 4,300 meters is reached, OGX said.
The company also announced that it completed drilling at a well in another block at a depth of 3,467 meters that could yield between 100 million and 200 million barrels of petroleum.
OGX, Brazil’s largest privately-owned oil company, is a unit of billionaire Eike Batista’s EBX conglomerate.
The oil company, which acquired its first exploration blocks in 2008, has the rights to 29 blocks and plans to begin producing crude in 2011.