Brazil expects OPEC invite, sees moderating role

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 27 (Reuters) - Brazil, which has found big offshore oil reserves in the subsalt cluster, expects an invitation by OPEC to join the exporter countries' cartel, Energy Minister Edison Lobao was quoted as saying on Friday.

Lobao said in an interview with Valor Economico business newspaper that his estimates were based on the fact that Brazil had been called up for a meeting of oil producer and consumer nations in Jeddah last weekend.

"The simple fact that we were invited for an emergency meeting means, in my view, OPEC's intention to invite us to join, if not now, then in the short run," Lobao said. A ministry spokesman confirmed Lobao's comments to Reuters.

Lobao said Brazil could use its experience as a diplomatic conciliatory force to work as a "moderating voice within the OPEC, which would be very appropriate at the moment."

"We are living a new oil crisis like in 1973 and 1979. It would be very good to have countries (in the OPEC) with a moderating line," Lobao said.

When Brazil first announced the discovery of the giant Tupi light oil field last November, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he did not rule out joining OPEC in the future.

State-run oil company Petrobras estimates Tupi's recoverable reserves at between 5 billion and 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, most of it light crude, which would make it one of the world's biggest oil finds in the last two decades.

Petrobras and partners have also struck light crude in several areas next to Tupi, also in the subsalt cluster deep under the ocean floor. Some analysts say the area may contain more than 30 billion barrels, while the whole subsalt formation along the southern coast may hold more than 70 billion barrels.

Nevertheless, many sector experts say it would take many years and hundreds of billions of dollars before Brazil develops those reserves and effectively becomes a major exporter. Right now, it is barely meeting its oil needs.