Brazil's congress approves pre-salt bill

Legislation that opens Brazil's ultra-deepwater oil and gas fields to private operators has been passed by the lower house of congress and sent to President Michel Temer for final approval.

Lawmakers rejected the last two attempts by the opposition to change the proposal during a plenary session that ended late on Wednesday.

The bill removes the obligation of state-run oil firm Petrobras to hold a minimum 30% operating stake in pre-salt projects in the Santos and Campos basins.

According to PSDB party senator José Serra, who first presented the proposal to a senate committee in March 2015, existing rules have overburdened Petrobras and deprived Brazil of billions of dollars in private investment.

See Brazil's top five pre-salt fields here

In addition to shouldering the oil industry's largest debt, Petrobras has been ravaged by a corruption scandal that has led to jail terms for several former employees and prompted major ratings agencies to downgrade the company to junk.

Located off Brazil's southeast coast, the pre-salt layer extends up to 7km below the Atlantic's surface.

According to a study by Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, the area contains recoverable reserves in excess of 176Bboe.

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