Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent
MUMBAI, June 5 -- Brazil's state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has entered into a swap deal with India's state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), whereby Petrobras will gain participating interest in certain of ONGC's offshore exploration blocks off India, while ONGC will gain equity in certain of Petrobras's blocks off Brazil.
This swap agreement marks Petrobras's first entry into India.
ONGC will have 25-30% equity in three exploration blocks off Brazil. In kind, Petrobras will have 15-40% stake in three deepwater blocks off India.
In Brazil, the blocks are in Maranhão, in the Sergipe-Alagoas basin, and in the Santos basin. In India, the blocks to be explored are in the Krishna Godavari, Mahanadi, and Cauvery basins. All of these blocks are in deep waters and at least one well will be drilled in each one of them.