Considered the biggest oil reserve in the Brazilian Continental Platform, the Campos Basin measures some 100,000 square kilometers and ranges from the State of Espírito Santo, near the city of Vitória, to the Arraial do Cabo, off the northern coast of the State of Rio de Janeiro. This basin currently accounts for nearly 84% of Brazil's oil production.

In 2007, The Campos Basin completed 30 years of production and it still stores about 80% of the oil reserves Petrobras has discovered in Brazil. About 1.49 million barrels of oil and 22 million cubic meters of gas are lifted from there a day, and its potential is far from being depleted. According to company forecasts, it will reach 2010 producing 1.8 million barrels of oil and 34.6 million cubic meters of gas per day.

On August 21 2007, Petrobras' president, José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, participated in platform P-54's baptism ceremony. The FPSO-type unit is the second of its type built by Petrobras. The first was the P-52, which was baptized last June and is currently in its final testing phase to depart to the Campos Basin.

The P-52 and the P-54 are part of the development program for the Roncador Field, in the Campos Basin (RJ), and when they reach peak production, they will add 360,000 barrels per day to Petrobras' production.

Exploration was kicked-off in the Campos Basin in late 1976, at well 1-RJS-9-A, which gave rise to the Garoupa field, located at a depth of 100 meters. Commercial production, meanwhile, began in 1977, at well 3-EM-1-RJS, with an output of 10,000 barrels/day, at the Enchova field.

As these are waters currently considered as shallow, the first platforms that were built there were of the fixed type, which consisted of jackets secured to the ocean bed. However, seismic surface surveys indicated the existence of large structures favorable to the existence of oil at depths of more than 200 meters.

Of the 55 fields that currently exist in the Campos Basin, 36 are considered mature, i.e., they have already capped their production. By applying these new technologies, Petrobras was able to increase the oil recovery factor in the basin as a whole by 3% from 2004 to 2006.

For more data on the Campos Basin, access Operational Highlights, in this site's Investor Relations area. Also, read the "Frequently Asked Questions" regarding the Campos Basin.