RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 24 (Reuters) - State-controlled oilcompany Petroleo Brasileiro said on Wednesday it hadstarted production on its eighth platform in the offshore Lulafield, Brazil's most productive, as it ramps up output from theSantos basin in the coveted pre-salt oil play.
Platform 69 will be able to produce up to 150,000 barrels ofoil per day and 6 million cubic meters of gas from the field,which already accounts for 30 percent of production in Brazil,now Latin America's top producer.
The platform features eight production wells and seveninjection wells to extract oil and gas from the field, which wasdiscovered in 2006 and where production began four years later.
Petrobras operates the field and owns a 65 percent stake.Royal Dutch Shell and Galp have 25 and 10percent stakes respectively.
In the pre-salt offshore area, billions of barrels of oilare trapped beneath a thick layer of salt under the ocean floor.The Santos basin already accounts for over half of production inBrazil.
A Shell executive told Reuters last month that Lula shouldhit peak production in 2020 or 2021, after reaching 1 millionbarrels of oil and gas per day next year.(Reporting by Marta Nogueira and Jose Roberto Gomes, Writing byAlexandra AlperEditing by Marguerita Choy)