Petrobras to create oil services industry fund

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research)(PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will create a fund to invest in the local oil services industry, company financial director Almir Barbassa said on Wednesday.

Petrobras said it would partner up with the country's largest state-run bank Banco do Brasil (BBAS3.SA: Quote, Profile, Research) and the BNDES development bank to create the fund, which will finance projects to develop Brazil's massive subsalt oil fields.

The fund will start with an initial investment of 100 million reais ($61 million), with Petrobras putting up around 10 percent of the total and the two banks the rest, Barbassa told reporters at a news conference.

Petrobras, after announcing a slew of large deep-water oil finds in the past months, is expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade, according to some analysts, to bring the fields into production.

Barbassa also said Petrobras would spend $8 billion to commission the construction of 12 deep-water drilling ships and platforms that will develop Brazil's technically difficult sub-salt oil fields deep under the ocean floor off the coast.

In December, Petrobras said the recoverable reserves in its subsalt Tupi field were estimated at 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which would make it the biggest deep-water find ever. Petrobras is partners with the British-based BG Group and Portugal's Galp in the field. (Reporting by Denise Luna; Writing by Reese Ewing; Editing by Christian Wiessner)