The World’s Biggest Oil Discovery Just Opened For Foreign Ownership

 

The pre-salt of offshore Brazil.The billion-barrel potential of Brazil’s pre-salt has been recognized for years. But getting into this big-upside play hasn’t been easy — given that blocks here were tightly controlled by Brazilian state developer Petrobras. With foreign operators generally confined to minority stakes in partnership with the major.

But on Friday, Petrobras did something it’s never done before. Sold a majority stake in a pre-salt block to a outside entity.