BG soars as Brazil oil well comes up trumps

BG Group, the former exploration arm of British Gas, was toasting its Brazilian move again today after the country's state-run oil giant Petrobras said a well it operates with the firm had found more crude.

Shares jumped 3.5% - or 46p to 1372.5p - after Petrobras said it had found the oil in the 2,150-metre well in the Santos Basin, approximately 172 miles off the coast of São Paulo state.

BG massively upgraded its Brazilian oilfield estimates near the end of last year, with chief executive Frank Chapman saying the country's resources were at the centre its growth plans.

Oil finds in the subsalt region helped increase Petrobras's reserves of oil and gas by 7.5% last year from 2009. Brazil's subsalt reserves, located under a thick layer of salt four miles beneath the ocean's surface are estimated to contain 50 billion or more barrels of oil and could catapult the South American country to the ranks of the world's top oil producers.