Date: 07-May-10
Country: BRAZIL
Author: Brian Ellsworth and Denise Luna
 

Brazil will ask oil companies operating its offshore fields to provide information on well control systems and to review their emergency response protocols in the wake of the BP Gulf of Mexico spill, the ANP energy regulator said late Wednesday.

The vast majority of the roughly 2 million barrels per day that state oil company Petrobras produces in Brazil come from offshore fields, and most of the country's future output growth is seen coming from ultra-deep water fields.

The ANP said in a statement it had decided to "send information requests to all the concession-holders that operate in Brazilian waters seeking information on well control systems for offshore drilling."

It will also "ask concession-holders to reevaluate their emergency plans and send documentation to the (ANP) about their respective response capacity."

The ANP also said it had requested that the U.S. Minerals Management Service allow one of its representatives to accompany the investigation of the accident.

The Deepwater Horizon floating drilling rig sank off the coast of Louisiana after an explosion on April 20, leaving crude oil from a well operated by BP gushing from the ocean floor and prompting global concerns about the safety of offshore drilling.

(Editing by John Picinich)