Brazil should adopt oil production-share model-ANP

BRASILIA, May 13 (Reuters) - Brazil should create a new state-run oil company to manage some of its subsalt oil reserves and adopt a production-sharing model in other areas, the head of the National Petroleum Agency said on Wednesday.

Brazil's government is studying ways to take greater control over the oil industry following the discovery of huge subsalt reserves by state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research)(PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) off its southern coast.

Haroldo Lima, part of a government group debating changes to rules for oil exploration and production, cited such a model, used in Russia, as an option for Brazil.

Addressing congress, Lima advocated the adoption of a production-sharing model for low exploratory risk areas, including potentially huge subsalt reserves found in late 2007. He also defended maintaining the current tax and royalty system in areas with higher risk.

Lima, who was criticized by Brazil's stock market regulator for giving huge reserve estimates for the subsalt oil reserves last year, reaffirmed they could reach 50 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Companies exploring the area have not confirmed the figures.

"We'll have a reserve of more or less 60 billion (boe), and with the current 10 (billion boe in proven reserves), this puts Brazil's among the world's 10 biggest reserves," Lima told legislators. (Reporting by Fernando Exman, Translated by Inae Riveras; Editing by Walter Bagley)