RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian state-controlled oil giant Petrobras said it discovered a new deep-water crude deposit in the Espirito Santo basin.

In a regulatory filing Wednesday, Petrobras said the find was made at a water depth of 1,208 meters (3,960 feet) during drilling of the Grana Padano well, located 58 kilometers (36 miles) off the coast of Vitoria, capital of the southeastern state of Espirito Santo.

The deposit is located above the so-called pre-salt layer, a roughly 160,000 sq.-kilometer (62,000 sq.-mile) deep-water area off Brazil’s coast that is estimated to hold tens of billions of barrels of crude.

The well is being drilled by a consortium in which Petrobras has a 70 percent stake and private firm IBV Brasil has the remaining 30 percent interest.

“The consortium will continue exploring the block and intends to submit a proposed Assessment Plan to the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) with the aim of delimiting the accumulation discovered and estimating reservoir volumes and productivity,” the filing said. EFE