Brazil's state-owned oil exploration and production firm Petrobras has confirmed that it has the necessary technology in place to extract newly-found resources in the Santos Basin.

Since last November, the firm has announced a series of new discoveries within the offshore subsalt reserves, with initial estimates pointing to possible reserves of up to eight million barrels of oil.

However, there has been widespread speculation that it may not be able to tap the reserves due to a shortage of technology and manpower, though Petrobras exploration and production director Guilherme Estrella has stressed that this is not the case.

"There are no technological barriers to producing (oil) in the subsalt areas of the Santos basin," he told reporters in the city of Vitoria.

"Our focus is to reduce costs," he added.

These latest comments come amid ongoing speculation within Brazil's oil and gas industry that the country's government may set up a new state-owned company to deal with the new resources from the Santos Basin.

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