The Spanish banking group, Banco Santander, says that the Western Hemisphere’s largest oil find in three decades, discovered by Brazilian energy company Petroleo Brasileiro (otherwise known as Petrobras), can turn a profit even with crude hovering at the $50 per barrel level.

Partly based on these discovered –and yet to be discovered– pre-salt oil deposits, Brazil believes it can one day become one of the world’s leading crude oil producers.

“Brazil can become the world’s third-largest oil producer without putting on a turban,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said back in June. By that, he said he meant Brazil can be a leading producer without giving up “its Brazilian ways.”

The Brazilian government holds more than 50 percent of Petrobras’ common shares.