In Tupi it will take around eight years to reach full production, and the whole of its reserves would only meet world consumption needs for three months.

Discovery of a huge oilfield 250 kilometers off the southeastern coast of Brazil will not have an immediate effect on world crude markets, but it opens up future prospects of a new oil frontier in the South Atlantic which may deter the pursuit of clean energy sources, experts say.
The Brazilian government and the state oil company Petrobras announced on Nov. 8 that between five and eight billion barrels of oil and gas had been found in a block in the off-shore Tupi field, in the Santos geological basin. These are in addition to proven national reserves of 13.8 billion barrels, Peakoil.com said.
The most promising feature of the discovery is that it is part of a complex formed by the Santos, Campos and Espiritu Santo sea-floor basins on the continental margin of Brazil. Their combined area is 800 kilometers by 200 kilometers, and Brazil is already extracting most of its oil there.
It was known that there were much greater quantities of oil, beneath a salt layer.
“That whole area contains reserves of at least 50 billion barrels, as a conservative estimate,“ said Marcio Mello, for 26 years a researcher at Petrobras’ technology center.
The government quotes a figure of 70 billion barrels in the three basins, and some people venture an estimate of over 100 billion barrels. If proven, Brazil’s reserves would approximately match those of high volume exporters like Kuwait and Venezuela, although they could not compare with Saudi Arabia’s.
Across the ocean, along the southwest African coasts of Angola, Congo and Namibia, there are similar amounts of oil. The Latin American and African coasts share a common geological formation which was split apart by the South Atlantic ocean, which separated the continents in prehistoric times, Mello, who has been studying the subject for 10 years.
But in Africa the salt layer, beneath which these additional deposits lie, has not yet been perforated. Petrobras drilled its first well in Tupi last year, and found signs of an oilfield.
Petrobras struck oil 6,000 meters below the surface, after descending through 2,000 meters of water and perforating a salt layer as well as rocks and sand. This difficult exploratory drilling indicates that extraction will be expensive, even before considering the cost of transport from the high seas.
It was the high costs that delayed exploration, in spite of the longheld opinion among geologists that large reserves lay under the salt layer.
The Campos basin, near Rio de Janeiro, is currently the most productive oilfield because a great deal of crude has seeped through the salt layer, which is more permeable there than in the other basins, geologist Giuseppe Bacoccoli, who worked for Petrobras as an exploration scientist for 32 years, until 1997.
Therefore there must be less oil left beneath the salt layer in the Campos basin, as opposed to the Santos and Espiritu Santo basins, said Bacoccoli who is now a researcher in the postgraduate engineering program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Confirmation of the Tupi reserves may also stimulate investment in the African basins, “which have hardly been explored because of political conditions there,“ said Mello. He regretted that Petrobras did not accept Angola’s offer of the concession to all its deep water fields in 1990. Now oil companies from rich countries hold the concessions.
There are other promising marine areas in the south of the Gulf of Mexico and the waters off of Venezuela, but all these new frontiers will not have much effect on the world crude market, in Mello’s view. The present high prices of crude are due to the time-lag between finding oil and beginning to extract it, he said.
In Tupi, for example, it will take around eight years to reach full production, and the whole of its reserves would only meet world consumption needs for three months. Finding other oilfields in the basin will demand huge investment, time, and many exploratory wells dispersed throughout an area four times the size of Switzerland.
For all these reasons, as well as increasing domestic demand for oil-based fuels, Brazil will not become a leading exporter of oil, Mello said.
Bacoccoli fears a reduction of investments from abroad, because of a move towards nationalization spurred by the discovery of the Tupi reserves. The government cancelled a public tender for concessions for new blocks in the Santos basin, saying that it had to review contract conditions in light of the changed situation.
Meanwhile, environmentalists point to a new challenge, because the sudden increase in oil reserves tends to detract from support for clean, renewable energy sources, said Delcio Rodrigues, an energy expert with the non-governmental organization Vitae Civilis which is active on climate change issues.
Most scientists attribute climate change largely to the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and gas.

The world must not miss its second chance to take a radically different approach to energy consumption.
There is a strong sense of dŽjˆ vu in the bleak picture that the International Energy Agency (IEA)--sometimes described as “the rich world’s energy watchdog“--painted last week of likely global energy consumption over the next two decades, and its consequences for climate change, ENN.com reported.
In the early 1970s, open conflict between the Arab states and Israel set oil prices skyrocketing. Simultaneously, the Club of Rome and other organizations warned that the world risked running out of many key natural resources. Both led to widespread calls for massive investment in alternative renewable-energy sources, and for new, non-energy-intensive lifestyles.
Some international and national movement in this direction followed--the IEA and ministries of energy were created, for example. But much of the warning was ignored. And when the price of oil subsided in the 1980s, the political impetus for radical change evaporated.
The foolhardiness of this short-sightedness has now come back to haunt the developed world in the shape of global warming. Any doubts about the gravity of not taking action are dispelled by a close reading of the IEA report, “The World Energy Outlook 2007“. Although this focuses on the particular risks posed by the evolution of China and India into major economic powers, it has comparable, if not greater, significance for the rest of the world.
The report points out that if nations stick to existing policies, in what it describes as a “reference scenario“, the world’s energy needs would be more than 50 percent higher in 2030 than they are today (and carbon emissions 57 percent higher). A more modest growth in energy demand, based on government policies under consideration, would lead to global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions leveling off in the 2020s through, for example, widespread adoption of tougher energy-efficiency standards. But even under this “alternative scenario“, the IEA report predicts that global carbon dioxide emissions would still increase by one quarter by 2030.
Only under the report’s “stabilization scenario“--described as a “notional pathway“ to long-term stabilization of levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere--would global carbon dioxide emissions fall sharply below 2005 levels by 2030. This would be achieved through improved efficiency in industry, buildings and transport, switching to nuclear power and renewable-energy sources, and the widespread deployment of carbon dioxide capture and storage.
But this will require “unprecedented technological advances, entailing substantial costs“. Indeed, one of the main recommendations in the report is for “a substantial increase [...] in public and private funding for energy technology research, development and demonstrations, which remains well below levels reached in the early 1980s.“
The task is not unprecedented. As countries such as the United States have amply demonstrated in the past, crash research and development programs--for example, to build an atomic bomb or to put a man on the moon--are entirely feasible, given adequate mobilization of human and financial resources and, above all, political will.
But developing new technology to meet the terms of the stabilization scenario will not be enough. Equally important is the political task of making people worldwide move away from high energy-consuming practices, the only way to create a globally sustainable society. This in turn means curtailing the power of those whose political influence rests on such practices, such as the motor and oil industries.

The Dirty Dozen. That is what they are called by independent environmentalists researching the role of power companies responsible for the highest levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the United States.
Number one is Southern Co., which annually releases 172 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, according to the first-ever inventory of the world’s 50,000 power stations, conducted by the Centre for Global Development, a Washington-based policy think tank.
The second largest polluter is American Electric Power Company Inc., followed by Duke Energy Corporation and AES Corporation, IPSNews.net reported.
Scientists say electricity generation is responsible for one-quarter of the world’s total CO2 emissions--the main cause of global warming--and US power plants account for fully 25 percent of the emissions generated by the power sector worldwide.
Half of the “dirty dozen“ plants in the United States are located in just three states--Georgia, Texas, and Indiana. All 12 are coal-fired plants.
The study comes as a major UN-sponsored international conference on climate change is due to take place in Bali, Indonesia next month.
The Center’s new Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) web site reveals that, on a per capita basis, Australia has become the world’s number one carbon emitter in the power sector, although, in overall terms, the United States still remains the largest polluter.
On average, each individual in the United States is responsible for no less than nine tons of emissions per year, whereas the average Australian’s emissions amount to about 11 tons in the same span of time.
According to the CARMA database, populous developing nations have far lower per capita emissions than the richest countries. For example, the average Chinese citizen produces just two tons of CO2 emissions from power generation annually, and Indians emit only half a ton per person per year.
In terms of total CO2 output, however, China is the only country to approach the 2.8 billion tons of CO2 produced annually by the U.S. power sector.
Following China (2.7 billion tons) on the list are Russia (661 million tons); India (583 million tons); Japan (400 million tons); Germany (356 million tons); Australia (226 million tons); South Africa (222 million tons); Britain (212 million tons); and South Korea (185 million tons).
Center researchers say they hope that a large number of investors, insurers, lenders, and environmental experts will use the CARMA data to encourage power companies to turn to renewable and clean energy sources, such as wind and solar.
“CARMA makes information about power-related CO2 emissions transparent to people throughout the world,“ said Dr. David Wheeler, a senior researcher at the center and leader of the team that compiled the data on power stations.
“It is unique, one of a kind--a world standard,“ said CGD president Nancy Birdsall of CARMA. “Never before has this kind of information been made available on a global scale. Not only it is likely to catalyze action to cut emissions now, it also strengthens the knowledge base for monitoring any future market-based agreement.“
Birdsall may be right, as the center’s early research is already being used by environmental communities and lenders in the power sectors in large developing nations, such as Indonesia and China.
Though the United States and Australia are, in their respective categories, the world’s largest emitters of CO2, both countries remain reluctant to join any international pact to set definite cuts in emissions. Neither has signed nor seems willing to endorse the 1997 Kyoto treaty, which is due to expire in 2012.
That despite the fact that there is no longer any serious doubt among climate scientists that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are altering the Earth’s climate.

As 2007 draws to a close, citizens of Congo can look back on another year in which the challenge of introducing greater accountability into the Central African country’s opaque and corrupt oil sector loomed large.
In October, a council representing a cross-section of interests was set up to supervise implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Congo, the fourth-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. The creation of such a body is stipulated as one of the steps to be taken by countries that want a stamp of approval under the initiative, IPSNews.net said.
EITI was launched by former British prime minister Tony Blair in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development. It gathers government, business and civil society together in promoting the use of internationally accepted standards for reporting on revenues from the oil, gas and mining sectors--notably in countries that have a wealth of resources, but a poor record of using these resources to benefit all citizens.
Activists from the local branch of the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) campaign and others have been skeptical about figures issued by the National Petroleum Company of Congo. (PWYP is also aimed at increasing accountability in the resource sector, through pushing for disclosure of fees paid for resources.)
Now, “We haveÉan opportunity for companies and the government to make available, seriously and sincerely, the real figures (concerning oil) in a way that civil society, parliament and communities can have the means of understanding the extent of revenues,“ Christian Mounzeo, an activist who lobbies for accountability in the Congolese oil sector, told IPS.
Mounzeo serves as vice president of the executive committee of the council, which also includes other activists, such as Brice Mackosso; Fran�ois Okoko, a government representative, heads the committee. Members of the council were named in a decree issued in September by President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Congo first came out in support of EITI in 2004, and the country has committed itself to improved management of its oil sector in exchange for debt relief.
But, the treatment meted out to Mounzeo and Mackosso in previous months highlights how far government has to go in bettering the oil industry.
The two men were given 12-month suspended sentences in December last year after being convicted of misappropriating funds from their non-governmental organization (NGO), the Gathering for Peace and Human Rights.
A Nov. 14, 2006 press release from Global Witness noted, for instance, that the men were put on trial “despite the fact that their international funders have categorically denied any mismanagement, and the pre-trial investigation dropped a charge of misappropriation for lack of evidence.“
Mackosso points out that government’s 2007 budget assumes a rate of 45 dollars per barrel of oil, even though the commodity has been selling for much more: on Friday, crude rose to over 94 dollars a barrel in European trading. “Where is the balance of this money going?“ he asks.
For their part, authorities claim the surplus profits--303 million dollars for 2005, and 512 million dollars for 2006--are in a stabilisation fund at the central bank.
Mounzeo has estimated Congo’s 2006 earnings from oil at about 2.5 billion dollars. For over three decades, oil has been the mainstay of the economy, accounting for most of the budget; it is also Congo’s principal export.
Brazzaville’s commitment to rooting out graft in the oil sector may also be tested in its willingness to follow a corruption trail that apparently leads to the family of the president himself.
This apparent instance of luxurious living contrasts sharply with the daily reality of most Congolese.
The commodity that this country produces so much of is not even regularly available to its citizens. Fuel and paraffin shortages are often experienced--and last year transporters went on strike to protest against an increase in the price of petrol, now selling at about a dollar per liter.