SAO PAULO - Brazilian oil and gas company OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes said Thursday it found signs of hydrocarbons in another well in the BM-C-41 bloc in the southern part of the Campos basin off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

The company has made a string of discoveries in the last two months, including at another well in the same BM-C-41 block, which it announced on Monday. The block lies about 77 km (48 miles) from the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

The latest discovery, in the well 1-OGX-2A-RJS, identified a column of hydrocarbons of about 170 meters and with up to 20 percent porosity.

OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes is part of the EBX energy and infrastructure conglomerate owned by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista. OGX went public in June last year in what was, at that time, the biggest initial public offering in Brazil.

Brazil is set to climb the ranks of the world's oil producers after the discovery in 2007 of huge reserves of crude under a layer of salt rock deep below the sea floor, which could contain as much as 50 billion barrels.

Extracting the subsalt oil from depths of nearly 8 km (5 miles) in places will require billions of dollars in investments and pose significant technical difficulties. (Reporting by Elzio Barreto and Peter Murphy; Editing by John Picinich)