Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Tuesday attended a ceremony marking the first oil production in the pre-salt layer field in southeast Brazil.

    The production began with a Long-Duration Test (LDT) of about six months to one year to observe the operation in the Jubarte field off the coast of southeastern Espirito Santo state.

    Petrobras, the state oil firm, will spend about 50 million reais (31.25 million U.S. dollars) to adjust the P-34 Platform, which is expected to extract 18,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the Jubarte pre-salt layer field.

    The Jubarte field has a salt layer of only 200 meters and while the Tupi field, the largest ever oil field discovered recently, has a salt layer of over two km.

    Guilherme Estrella, Petrobras's Exploitation and Production Director, said the company hoped to gain practical experience for exploitation at pre-salt layer oil fields through production at the P-34 Platform.