Petrobras has informed the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency that the new oil field called Papa-Terra contains at least 700 million barrels of crude, which is some 10 percent of the country's confirmed current oil reserves. "Preliminary evaluations indicate that the new field, located to the south of the Campos basin, is a giant one, with reserves estimated at between 700 million and 1 billion barrels of oil," the company said in a statement carried by the local daily O Globo in its Internet edition. The new offshore oil field is located at a depth of 1,200 meters and contains heavy oil, according to the report. Petrobras owns 62.5 percent of the concession for the Papa-Terra area, and the remaining 37.5 percent is held by Chevron Overseas do Brasil Ltda, the local subsidiary of U.S. oil company Chevron. "The expectation of Petrobras is that the new field will go into production by the end of 2011 to give an important contribution for the Brazilian oil and gas output," Petrobras said in the statement. The Campos basin is considered the largest oil reserve in the Brazilian continental shelf and covers an area of some 100,000 square kilometers stretching from the state of Espirto Santo to the northern coast of Rio de Janeiro state in southeastern Brazil. The basin is responsible for some 80 percent of the country's oil output and currently houses more than 400 oil and gas wells, some 30 production platforms and some 4,000 km of offshore pipelines. Petrobras, which has a daily output of 1.86 million barrels of crude oil, expects Brazil will become self-sufficient in oil in the first quarter of 2006. PIN/KYODO