New Delhi, June 30: State-owned oil firms are planning to jointly bid for the Libra offshore oilfield in Brazil to meet the growing energy demand in the country.

Libra is the largest oilfield discovered in Brazil and one of the biggest in the world.

“The Libra field is a good prospect. We would study the data and think about the strategy,” sources in ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) said.

According to the estimates of Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency, the field holds around 26-42 billion barrels of crude.

The recoverable reserves are estimated at about 8-12 billion barrels, based on an estimated 30 per cent on-site recovery rate.

The size of the field can be assessed from the fact that Marlim, which is Brazil’s largest field at present, produces just 600,000 barrels per day and is estimated to have a recoverable oil volume of 2 billion barrels.

According to industry sources, Libra will require an investment of around $250-$500 billion.

Sources said the PSU firms were keen on pooling their resources as the bidding amount would be huge.

Brazil’s first petroleum rights sale under the new production-sharing rules is likely to take place in November.

Analysts said besides bidding jointly, the PSUs must also be part of a consortium of global firms to imbibe new exploration technologies.

The Libra field is located around 180km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in the Santos basin. The auction will be conducted under a new production-sharing contract regime that guarantees the state a greater share in profits from the highly promising pre-salt field.

Petrobras will be the sole operator of production-sharing agreements and will have at least a 30 per cent share in the consortia developing the projects.

The oil ministry is also likely to give the necessary push to the PSUs to bid aggressively or pick up stakes in global assets as part of the energy security strategy.