Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras said it has discovered a large crude oil deposit off the coast of the northeastern Sergipe state.
The reserve could yield nearly a billion barrels of crude, representing one of the world's largest finds of its kind in 2013, Xinhua cited the company as saying Friday.
Petrobras CEO Maria das Gracas Silva Foster said initial extraction could begin in 2018 at a rate of 100,000 barrels a day.
She said the deposit, in deep waters of the Sergipe basin (100 km off the coast), promises to be substantial.