MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil and Norway consider oil industry association

Petrobras and Statoil, Brazilian and Norwegian government owned oil companies are considering an association with the purpose of participating in the oil exploration and production round Venezuela will be calling before the end of the year.

Last week Petrobras and Statoil successfully and jointly bid for several offshore blocks in the Sixth Oil Round convened by the Brazilian National Oil Agency.

Petrobras CEO Joao Carlos Figueira is currently in Norway participating in the international Offshore Northern Seas congress in Oslo, the offshore oil industry largest gathering in Europe.

"The companies are very similar. They are under government control, but they also have shares in the stock exchange. We believe there's great potential for technology exchange since both companies specialize in deep water offshore drilling", said Mr. Figueira after meeting with Statoil CEO Helge Lund.

According to Mr. Figueira, Petrobras interest in reaching a partnership with the Norwegian oil company goes beyond Venezuela to Iran and Nigeria where the Brazilians already have oil and gas exploration and production contracts. However the North Sea was discarded since that is a "mature" basin.

"Petrobras target it to reach an overseas production of 600,000 barrels per day by 2010, today we manage 270,000 barrels", said Mr. Figueira who revealed that Petrobras last week made the best bids in 37 blocks of the Gulf of Mexico licencing round.

However given the US licencing procedure the bids and companies must still be considered by US authorities before the final winner is awarded the blocks.

Norway the world's third major oil exporter has a population of 5,5 million, a daily production of 3,3 million barrels and one of the highest income per capita. Brazil's population is 170 million and daily oil production 1,6 million barrels.