Petrobras sees new Amazon natgas fields by 2012

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Brazil's state oil company Petrobras expects to put on stream three new natural gas fields in the Amazon by 2012 to substitute for the rapidly depleting Urucu reserve, a company director said on Monday.

Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) exploration and production director Guilherme Estrella said the company intended to meet a 20-year contract with the state government for 5.5 million cubic meters of gas per day with the output from the fields of Jurua, Jaraqui and Sao Matheus.

He also said Petrobras had over 20 exploration wells in the region and was doing seismic work expecting to find more gas soon.

Aside from Urucu and the pipeline network, Petrobras has been investing little in the Amazon over the past decades, in part because of concerns voiced by the environmentalists.

But now Brazil is struggling to feed a growing domestic market for natural gas and trying to expand domestic production as well as imports.

Petrobras plans to boost its natural gas deliveries to the market by over 150 percent to over 71 million cubic meters per day by 2010.