Liquigás Sale Could net Petrobras $768 mln

Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA could get up to 2.5 billion reais ($768.07 million) from the sale of its liquefied natural gas (LNGLF) distributor Liquigás Distribuidora SA, a local daily reported on Wednesday.

In June, the debt-laden Petrobras, as the company is known, kicked off a competitive auction for Liquigás, a subsidiary focused on the distribution and sale of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Newspaper O Globo reported that the country's largest LNG distributor Ultragaz, Supergasbras, controlled by the Netherlands' SHV, Nacional Gás and Copagaz are in the running bid for Liquigás.

Gávea Investimentos Ltda, the hedge fund run by former Brazil central bank chief Arminio Fraga, and Turkey's Aygaz are also interested, but unlikely to win the bid, the daily said without citing sources.

Petrobras is also considering extending the deadline to receive the bids to Aug. 30 from Aug. 19, O Globo reported.

Petrobras' press office could not be immediately reached for comments.

Liquigás, which has a 23 percent market share in Brazil's liquefied natural gas market, has 23 plants, 19 warehouses and a network of 4,800 resale shops across the country.

By Alonso Soto