Information stolen from Petrobras, reportedly related to big oil finds

Petroleo Brasileiro SA gave no details about the missing data except to characterize it as "confidential information" stolen from "equipment and materials that contain important information for the company." The official Agencia Brasil news service reported that federal police are investigating the case.

Brazil's Terra Web site reported that a hard drive and two notebooks were missing after they were supposed to have been transported from an offshore platform to the company's exploration headquarters in the city of Macae near Rio de Janeiro.

Petrobras declined comment on the Terra report, but the statement said the items had been under the control of an unnamed contracting company.

Petrobras said it has backup copies of the stolen information. Terra, without citing sources, reported that the missing information covered recent deep-water discoveries of oil and natural gas so large that they led Brazilian officials to predict that the nation could eventually join the ranks of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Petrobras late last year announced the discovery of an ultra-deep Atlantic Ocean field called Tupi with as much of 8 billion barrels 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 1 million barrels of oil equivalent a day when fully developed.

The Brazilian company last month said it had discovered a huge natural gas reserve off the coast of Rio de Janeiro that could be as big as the recently discovered Tupi oil field, but did not provide detailed potential production figures.

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