Rio de Janeiro (Platts)--12Nov2009/1116 pm EST/416 GMT

Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, said Thursday that a fourth test well in the Tupi offshore field confirms its estimate that the area contains 5 billion to 8 billion boe.

The well, known as 3-BRSA-755A-RJS, was drilled in water 2,115 meters (6,939 feet) deep, 265 km (165 miles) south of Rio de Janeiro.

The well was drilled to depths in excess of 4,900 meters and found light oil with gravity of 28 API.

Tupi is in a New York-state-sized area known as the "subsalt" running about 500 miles along the coast of Brazil near Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

The subsalt may contain as much as 100 billion barrels of oil, enough for more than 14 years of US consumption at 2008 levels, according to BP. Tupi is 65% owned by Petrobras, 25% owned by BP and 10% owned by Portugal's Galp.

--Jeb Blount, newsdesk@platts.com