How big is the deep-water oil field Carioca?

Photo:Carf, Creative Commons, Flickr

One of the big news stories affecting Big Oil this week is the news that Brazil’s oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR) is going to evaluate how large its latest discovery — a deep-water oil field known as Carioca — fares within the next three months or so. While numbers like 33 million barrels have been bandied about, there is no official comment on how much oil could be there. But that much oil would triple Brazil’s reserves.

Companies that are benefiting from this find are those that have stakes in Carioca. PBR, obviously, has the highest stake. But Repsol YPF (REP), a Spanish company, also has a stake, as does the British BG Group (BG.L). All three companies are enjoying gains this morning as oil prices rise.

Indeed, record oil prices were seen again Monday morning as the $117 a barrel mark was reached — before oil prices fell back down. However, oil prices are still well above $116 a barrel and gas prices are rising across the U.S. However, US oil company giants Chevron (CVX) and Exxon (XOM) are not enjoying the same bump as some of the foreign oil companies. Although their share prices are still well up from early last week.

Disclosure: I do not own any oil company stock.

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