Brazil launches project to become leading oil super-power

Brazil government managed energy company Petrobras on Friday lifted the first sub-salt oil from the massive, ultra-deep, offshore Tupi field in the Santos basin, an action Brazil’s government hopes will launch a new era for Latin America’s largest economy. “It is a historic moment, a new era” said President Lula da Silva said at an onshore ceremony commemorating the first oil from the Tupi field, after bad weather diverted his plans to visit the platform 300 kilometres offshore. The Tupi is not be the first sub-salt oil produced off Brazil, but it will set the tone for development of the rest of the 200-km-wide sub-salt band stretching 800 kilometres down the coast.