However, the head of the government's environmental agency Ibama in Rio de Janeiro, Carlos Henrique Mendes, told Reuters Petrobras still needed another license for the rig to start operating, and that some issues had to be resolved first.

He also said Ibama had slapped a 10 million reais (US$3.9 million) fine on Petrobras for having lay the underwater pipelines for the rig long before obtaining the rig installation license.

"Now they need an operating license...they'll need to make changes in their plan for emergency situations," Mendes said, explaining that Ibama wanted Petrobras to have oil contention ships permanently in the sea to treat any spills from rigs.

He said it was normal to have a gap between installation and operating licenses and that Ibama hoped to resolve this issue quickly.

Officials at Petrobras - Brazil's only oil producer so far - have said the company should miss its year-end output target by 2-3 percent due to delays in obtaining the license. Analysts say the delays would lead to a loss in production and profits of about 4 percent this year.

Petrobras had already been forced to revise down its 2001 average production target to 1.39 million bpd from 1.42 million bpd after its biggest oil rig sank in March. The output should now total about 1.35 million bpd for the year.

Despite a lower forecast, this year's production is still expected to top last year's 1.27 million level.

The new P-40 oil production rig and the P-38 storage platform will be operating at the Marlim Sul oil field in the oil-rich Campos basin. P-40 should reach its full 150,000 bpd capacity in late 2002. The P-40, received in January, had been initially due to start working by mid-year.

The sunken P-36 had a capacity to produce 180,000 bpd but had been extracting about 80,000 bpd. The platform sank after a series of explosions that killed 11 crew members.

Brazil is Latin America's third-largest oil producer. Petrobras lost its monopoly in 1997 and several dozen foreign firms are now in the exploration phase.