50 Top 10 Lists of 2007

News

Top 10 Underreported Stories

A worker rides a fork lift among drums of oil.
Adek Berry / AFP / Getty
Article Tools

#8. Brazil's Big Oil Find

In November, Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobas announced the largest oil discovery worldwide since 2000. Though the country is already a self-sufficient oil producer, the new Tupi field — located off the eastern coast of South America, beneath a crust of salt a mile thick in some places—could turn Brazil into a major exporter to rival Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Brazil wasted no time in protecting the area that is expected to produce as much as 8 billion barrels of light crude oil. The day after the Petrobas announcement, the government withdrew 41 exploration blocks in the Tupi region from an auction for private companies.

Connect to this TIME Story

Interact with
this story

  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Full Archive
  • Covers