Rio de Janeiro, 13 September 2010

Brazil's offshore Libra oil prospect contains approximately 8 billion barrels of oil, a government energy official said on Monday, vastly boosting a previous estimate of 5.5 billion barrels and possibly making it the second-largest crude discovery in a decade.

The area could be included in the first tenders of fields in the vast deepwater region known as the subsalt, once Congress approves a new production sharing system for oil fields in that region.

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Reuters - for Commodities Now.