RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 15(Xinhuanet)-- Canadian firm EnCana discovered an oil deposit off-shore in Campos field, in the northern littoral of Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, said the director of the company's Brazilian branch Julio Moreira, as cited by the press Thursday.

The company reported that the well, dubbed Chinook, has a deposit of 100 million to 200 million barrels of heavy oil, said Moreira.

In a test carried out last week, extraction from the well reached 1,800 barrels. It can reach a daily extraction capacity of 5,000 barrels, said the executive.

"We are happy because heavy-petroleum extraction is our specialty. Perhaps by the end of the year, we'll declare the commercial viability of the discovery," said Moreira.

Chinook is the third well discovered by EnCana in lot BMC-7 of Campos field. EnCana owns 50 percent of the lot and Kerr McGee, a United States oil firm, owns the other half.

EnCana has yet to decide whether to export its production or sell it in Brazil, where the market for heavy oil is limited as the majority of refining plants in the country only process light-crude.

In addition to the BMC-7 deposit, EnCana has shares in eight other lots, seven of which are operated by Brazil's state-run oil firm PETROBRAS. Enditem