Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras announced yesterday the discovery of a light oil field in Santos Basin in southeast Brazil.

According to the company, the oil field is located in sandy reservoirs above the salt layer, and confirms that the good light oil reserves lie in the shallow water portion of the basin.

It was the second discovery of oil above the salt layer in this area, 9.3 kilometers away from the first one at Tiro announced last May.

The new reservoirs are of the sandy type, and are located at a depth of approximately 2,060 meters underground. The total capacity of the reservoir is to be verified.

Although still in preliminary assessment phase, based on the two wells on the fields and on the analysis of the seismic data, Petrobras estimates that the volume of recoverable oil in this area is approximately 150 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Brazil's current reserve is about 12 billion barrels of oil equivalent.