Brazilian President says stolen oil info was ‘state secret’

Source: Energy Digital

Date :19/02/2008 13:39:24

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that the computers and hard drives stolen from the state-owned oil firm Petrobras last month held 'state secrets.’

It is suspected that the theft concerns data related to the Tupi field, a massive petroleum reserve that could turn the country into one of the biggest oil producers in the world.

According to Brazilian police, two hard drives and four laptops were stolen while being transported from an offshore rig in the Santos Basin, near both the Tupi and Jupiter oil fields, to Petrobras’ base in Macae.

Theft

The equipment was in the possession of US oil giant Halliburton Co, which has claimed that it was being guarded by an unnamed subcontractor.

Petrobras has said that it holds backup copies of the data.

Last November, Petrobras revealed the discovery of Tupi, an Atlantic Ocean field containing up to eight billion barrels of light crude. The chief executive of Britain's BG Group PLC, which also has a stake in the field, said this month that the field's production could reach one million barrels of oil equivalent a day when fully developed.

February 19, 2008