Officials say Libra holds up to 12 billion barrels, which would potentially make it one of the world's largest fields. "This is a huge block," said André Araújo, Shell Brasil's president.
Underscoring the oil's importance for Brazil, the question of how best to develop the new fields has become highly charged. As officials read the results inside a posh Rio hotel, police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters, including oil workers and nationalist student groups, who opposed the auction as a giveaway to foreign corporations.
President Dilma Rousseff defended the auction results in televised remarks. "The Libra auction is a landmark in the history of Brazil, transforming a limited resource, oil, into an undebatable gain, that is investment in education," she said late Monday.
