Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company, has announced that it will begin drilling for crude oil in the Tupi oil field in the Santos basin on May 1, 2009. Discovered in 2007, the oil field is estimated to have between 5 and 8 billion barrels of oil, but could potentially have up to 80 million barrels at deeper levels.

At the beginning, 15,000 barrels will be extracted per day, with an increase to 30,000 and later 100,000 after testing. However, Petrobras has already been extracting oil in the Campos basin and in Niteroi with the help of new platforms, and extracted a record 2,012,654 barrels last Wednesday.

Petrobras plans to invest over US$174 billion from 2009 to 2014 in oil exploration and production. However, Brazil was recently hit by the worldwide economic crisis, with a drop in industrial production and a loss of manufacturing jobs.