The latest oil find was announced not by Petrobras, the government-run hydrocarbons giant, but by the National Petroleum Agency, a federal unit linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy and responsible for the regulation of the oil sector.

ANP said the discovery it first revealed in April was much larger than previously announced.

The volume of recoverable light oil in the well reaches 4.5 billion barrels, more than double the previously announced volume of 2 million barrels, ANP said.

The 2-ANP-1-RJS well, nicknamed Franco, is located in the hugely oil-rich Santos Basin, off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil's southeastern region.

Although drilling for the oil was carried out by Petrobras, the area belongs to the federal government and is yet to undergo any public bidding process. A second well, 2-ANP-2-RJS, nicknamed Libra, is being drilled northeast of Franco by Diamond Offshore drill-vessel Ocean Clipper, ANP said.

"It seems that this is one of the highest potential wells ever drilled in the country," said ANP General Director Haroldo Lima.

Franco is the second biggest pre-salt discovery made in the Santos basin so far, behind only Tupi, which Petrobras estimates to hold 5 billion-8 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Last month Petrobras set a monthly record for oil production with 2.033 million barrels per day, topping the previous mark of 2.004 million bpd from September 2009.

Several platforms installed over the last 18 months helped boost Petrobras output, the company said.

Petrobras has increased oil output in recent months mainly because of increases in output at several oil platforms installed over the past 18 months. Further record-setting production has been forecast for this year.

Petrobras is using a floating production, storage and offloading vessel, Cidade de Santos. that will start operations at the Urugua-Tambau field, while another FPSO, Capixaba, is due to begin producing from the Cachalote and Baleia Franca field.

Yet another FPSO, Cidade de Vitaria, is busy at the Golfinho field, off the coast of Espirito Santo state, and is also involved with new wells at the Marlim Leste field in the Campos Basin.

A long-term well test that started March 19 at the Tiro field in the Santos Basin also contributed to the boost in output, Petrobras said.

Further output from new wells has come from two on-shore fields at Rio Urucu and Leste do Urucu in the Amazonas Basin.

In addition to the monthly oil production record, Petrobras said it set consecutive daily production records for total oil output. The company produced 2.082 million barrels of oil equivalent and 2.084 million BOE respectively April 23-24.

In the meantime, however, the company's overall daily oil and natural gas production slipped 0.2 percent to 2.556 million BOE in March because of lower natural gas production.

The increase in oil production has led to calls for Brazil to beware of complacency and not to become drawn into an "oil bonanza" economy at the expense of industrial advancement and manufactured exports.

A strong real has already affected Brazilian exports, to which the government has responded by pumping money into incentives for exporters. But the real's strength and global economic downturn have combined to dampen demand for Brazilian commodity and manufactured exports.

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