RIO DE JANEIRO, May 14 (Reuters) - The head of Brazil's oil market regulator said on Wednesday he was worried the United States might contest the country's rights over huge offshore oil reserves lying in a so-called exclusive economic zone.
Agencia Estado news agency quoted Haroldo Lima as saying during a Congressional hearing he would take part in a defense Ministry meeting on the subject soon. Lima heads the National Petroleum Agency (ANP).
The 1994 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was signed but not ratified by the United States, says that coastal states have exclusive economic zones extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles or 370 km) from the baseline, where they enjoy exclusive rights over all natural resources.
"We say the limit is 200 miles. Some countries agree and other don't. I recall that one of the angry ones is the United States; they don't respect this thing about 200 miles too much," Lima said, according to the news agency.
"If the Americans pick on this one, we've got a problem," it quoted him as saying.
State oil company Petrobras along with foreign partners including BG Group have found big reserves of oil and gas in a deep subsalt cluster about 290 km (180 miles) from the coast.
Last November, it estimated recoverable reserves at the Tupi field at between 5 billion and 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent in light oil and natural gas.
The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia denied that Washington had any problems with the exclusive economic zone.
"We do respect the 200-mile limit," an embassy spokesman said.
It was not clear what prompted Lima's concern.
Lima, known for his leftist views, last month created market turmoil when he came up with an estimate for reserves at the Carioca field, next to Tupi, putting it at 33 billion barrels and citing Petrobras data.
The ANP later distanced itself from his remarks, saying the data was in fact an analyst's estimate which had been in the public domain for weeks.
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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