Brazil May Become 3rd-Largest Oil Producer

Brazil's offshore oil discoveries, including the Western Hemisphere's largest since 1976, may push the country past the U.S. as the world's third-largest crude producer, president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.

``Brazil can become the world's third-largest oil producer without putting on a turban,'' Lula said today in Sao Paulo at a conference on social responsibility. By that, he said he meant Brazil can be a leading producer without giving up ``its Brazilian ways.''

Brazil, which ranks second to Venezuela among South American oil-producing nations, would need to more than triple its 2007 output of 1.83 million barrels a day to surpass the U.S. average of 6.88 million, according to estimates by BP Plc. Saudi Arabia produced 10.4 million barrels of oil a day in 2007 and Russia pumped 9.98 million, London-based BP estimated.