Aramco looks to develop Brazil's offshore oil

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A senior official from Brazil has said that state-owned hydrocarbons giant Saudi Aramco is among the companies interested in helping the South American country to develop its pre-salt oil reserves.

Dow Jones reported that Dilma Rousseff, chief-of-staff to Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said that Aramco and a number of other un-named international oil companies wanted to develop the reserves, located off the southwestern coast of Brazil.

"Saudi Aramco's president [Khalid Al-Falih] expressed his interest in investing to me when I was on a state visit to Saudi Arabia this year," Rousseff is reported by Reuters as saying.

The pre-salt reserves are located below a layer of salt under the sea-bed and the largest discovery thus far has been the 5 to 8 billion barrel reserve field Tupi.

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"Although we have reserved the greatest role for the government, we also want international companies to participate,” Rousseff is reported as saying.

“The pre-salt reserves are so huge that even 10% of them would represent a huge field for development. We believe international companies will be eager to take part," she added.