Petrobras Has Spent $1 Billion to Drill 20 Pre-Salt Wells

By Jeb Blount and Laura Price

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, has spent $1 billion since 2005 to drill 20 wells in so-called pre-salt offshore fields.

The cost of drilling wells to a depth of 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below the ocean service and seabed has fallen from $240 million to $60 million and the time to drill the wells has dropped from a year to an average of 60 days, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said today in a statement.

Petrobras, as the company is known, said oil found in the pre-salt fields is primarily light crude at a grade of 28 degrees on the American Petroleum Institute scale.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeb Blount in Rio de Janeiro at jblount@bloomberg.net; Laura Price in Sao Paulo at lprice3@bloomberg.net.