BP Buys 40% Stake in Petrobras Offshore Oil Block

BP has struck a farm-in deal with Brazil’s Petrobras that gives the UK oil major a minority stake in a deepwater block located in northern Brazil’s Ceara basin. As agreed, BP will take a 40% stake in the BM-CE-1 offshore block with 60% remaining in the hands of Petrobras, a BP spokesman says. Brazil’s energy regulator Agencia Nacional do Petroleo has approved the deal, the BP official adds. The BP spokesman declined to discuss additional details and Petrobras officials would not comment on the deal. Petrobras originally secured the license for the 1,281-square km-wide block in 2001 as part of Brazil’s third licensing round of oil exploration blocks. Entry into the Ceara basin is the latest BP offshore deal in the South American country since it bought the assets of Devon Energy in Brazil which included 10 exploration blocks, 7 of them in the Campos basin.