Brazil's Petrobras asked the country's oil regulator ANP to declare Sepia Leste, part of the giant Jupiter area, commercially viable, allowing it to move to production, the state-run oil company said in a statement late Nov. 13.

Sepia Leste, 80 percent owned by Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, and 20 percent by Portugal's Galp Energia SGPS, contains an estimated 130 million barrels of recoverable oil and equivalent natural gas, Petrobras said in the statement.

The field is offshore in the Santos Basin, 250 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro.