China’s Sinochem to pay $3.07B for 40 pct stake in Statoil’s offshore oil field near Brazil

Statoil selling stake in Brazil offshore oil field

NEW YORK — Norway’s Statoil says it has agreed to sell a 40 percent stake in its Peregrino offshore oil field near Brazil to a Chinese oil company for $3.07 billion in cash.

Statoil ASA said Friday it agreed to sell the stake to state-owned Sinochem Group. The field is set to start production next year.

The deal must be cleared by both the Chinese and Brazilian governments.

Statoil acquired half of the Peregrino field in 2005 and the other half in 2008. It sits about 53 miles from the Brazilian coast under about 328 feet of water.

Offshore oil drilling has come under intense scrutiny as oil giant BP PLC struggles to contain a ruptured deep-sea well in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the ruptured BP well is in much deeper water. It lies 5,000 feet under the sea — a high-pressure environment that has proven to be much more difficult to handle.

Statoil said it will develop the Peregrino field with two drilling and wellhead platforms along with a floating production, storage and offloading unit.

Statoil said the sale will reduce its production guidance for 2012 by 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to a range of between 2.06 million and 2.16 million barrels per day.