OSLO (Reuters) - Statoil (OL:STL) has bought a stake in one of Brazil's largest oilfields from national oil company Petrobras (SA:PETR4) for up to $2.85 billion (2.14 billion pounds), nearly tripling its production off the South American country, the Norwegian firm said on Monday.
Statoil bought a 25-percent stake in the Roncador oilfield, Petrobras' third-largest producing field, situated in the Campos basin offshore Brazil.
The deal consists of an initial payment of $2.35 billion plus "additional contingent payments" of up to $550 million, Statoil said in a statement on Monday.
After the transaction, Statoil's output off Brazil will increase to 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day from around 40,000 boe per day, it said. Petrobras will continue to operate the field and will hold a 75-percent stake.
Roncador holds expected remaining recoverable volumes of more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Statoil said.
"The ambition is to increase the recovery factor by at least 5 percentage points, bringing the total remaining recoverable volumes to more than 1,500 million boe," it said.
The transaction over Roncador will take effect from Jan. 1. The deal is subject to approval from Brazilian authorities.