Brazil's state-led oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, and its Indian partners have made a "beautiful" oil discovery off Brazil's north-east coast, the company's chief executive officer said.

Maria das Graças Silva Foster, the chief executive, declined to say how big the discovery is but said it was an important new oil "province" for Brazil and that its large potential reserves would create a rush of jobs and activity to the area that will need to be managed carefully.

Ms Foster said the find would produce a minimum 100,000 barrels of petroleum a day starting in 2018.

On Thursday, Reuters exclusively reported that the discovery, centred on the SEAL-11 offshore exploration block, likely holds more than 1 billion barrels of oil and that the region will soon become Brazil's biggest new oil frontier.

The SEAL-11 block is 60 per cent-owned by Petrobras and 40 per cent-owned by IBV Brasil, a 50-50 joint venture between India's Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Videocon Industries Ltd.

"In 2008 we decided to do a very extensive investigation of the area, and the results we have got have been very good," Ms Foster told reporters at company headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.

"This is a beautiful discovery, beautiful discoveries."

In addition to light, high-quality crude oil, the region has important quantities of gas, she added.

Two prospects in the area, known as Farfan and Muriu, are expected to be developed as a single or integrated unit, with at least one floating production, storage and offloading ship (FPSO) producing oil and gas from the area in 2018, Ms Foster said.

Ms Foster said that was the minimum outlook for the area based on spending in the company's $237 billion 2013-2017 investment plan drawn up before the latest drilling and tests in the area.

If confirmed, the new find could make the region the country's biggest new oil frontier since the government unveiled the massive subsalt discoveries off the coast of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo states in 2007.

Reuters