Shell Consortium Finds Oil In French Guiana

Royal Dutch Shell

, the largest U.S. oil company, is among a group of companies that announced a significant oil discovery off the cost of French Guiana on Friday. France's Total

, Europe's third-largest oil company, and Tullow Oil Plc, one of the largest U.K.-based independent oil companies, are also part of the consortium. Tullow holds a 27.5% interest in the project, which is the first being drilled in northern coastal area of the South American country. French Guiana borders oil-rich Brazil, bolstering hopes that the former may be home to vast oil reserves as well. While Tullow was short on specifics, the company said the geologic system in French Guiana could be bigger than the company's Jubilee Field in Ghana, which is home to 1.4 billion barrels, according to the Wall Street Journal. Tullow is active in other areas of French Guiana. Along with its partners, the company could be sitting on 3.5 billion barrels of crude in the South American country, the Journal reported. OPEC member Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia are South America's top-three oil producing countries.