BG Group to Invest $4B over Three Years at Tupi Field

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones Newswires), Jan. 12, 2009

BG Group PLC will invest $4 billion over the next three years as part of the company's share to develop Brazil's promising Tupi oil field, a Rio de Janeiro state official said Monday.

Quoted by the local Estado news agency, Rio State Development Secretary Julio Bueno said that "this investment is only the first step in the grandiose volume that will be invested in the subsalt region."

Bueno made the comments after Rio Gov. Sergio Cabral met with BG Group CEO Frank Chapman and BG Brazil unit President Armando Henriques.

According to Bueno, the executives told Rio state officials that the investments would be used to install a pilot project at the Tupi field, which is expected to start in 2010. The Tupi pilot project is expected to produce about 100,000 barrels of oil a day.

BG Group is a partner with state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro in several key exploration blocks focused on the pre-salt region, including the Tupi and Carioca finds.

In November 2007, Petrobras said Tupi could contain recoverable reserves of as much as eight billion barrels of oil equivalent, or BOE. The nearby Iara field could contain recoverable reserves of between three billion and four billion BOE, Petrobras said late last year.  

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