Petrobras and BP have discovered oil in a deep-water offshore well in a new area for exploration off Brazil’s northeast coast. The oil was discovered in the BM-CE-2 concession in the offshore Ceara basin. The concession is 60% owned by Petrobras and 40% by BP. The find is one of the first off Brazil’s northeast coast. Petrobras and other companies are testing theories that the same geological systems that created and trapped oil off the West coast of Africa are present in Brazil’s Northeast. Brazil’s Northeast was once connected to West Africa before the powerful forces of continental drift pulled them apart over millions of years. The discovery of enormous oil fields in southeast Brazil near Rio de Janeiro was in part influenced by the discovery of offshore oil in Angola. Petrobras, which is the operator of the concession in Ceara, said it found a 290m long hydrocarbon column in the well with 140m of reservoirs, or “net pay”. The well has been named Pecem. The oil was found in the Paracuru formation 76km off the coast near Fortaleza, Brazil. So far, the well has been drilled in 2129m of water and to a depth of 4410m beneath the seabed. Petrobras intends to extend the well to 5500m.