Petrobras names banks in capitalization plan

SAO PAULO, June 3 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) (PBR.N) named several banks to coordinate a public share offer that is part of a major capitalization plan to finance the development of vast offshore oil and natural gas fields.

In a filing to the market regulator late on Wednesday, Petrobras named Bank of America Corp's (BAC.N) Merrill Lynch unit, the investment arm of Banco Bradesco (BBDC4.SA) BBI, the local unit of Citigroup (C.N), the investment arm of Itau Unibanco bank (ITUB4.SA) BBA, Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Santander (SAN.MC) to handle the sale of shares.

Petrobras has set an extraordinary general shareholders meeting for June 22 to approve the capitalization plan and authorize the board to define the size of the operation.

The plan is part of a larger reform of the oil and gas sector that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been trying to push through Congress with the aim of raising the government's share of Brazil's oil resources.

In 2007, Petorbras stunned the world when it announced the ultra-deep offshore Tupi field that it estimates holds 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of recoverable light oil and gas. The field was the first and biggest of several large finds in the vast subsalt geological layer off Brazil's coast.

The government proposed the capitalization plan to help Petrobras raise the needed hundreds of billions of dollars to develop the subsalt region over the next decades.

For more details on the capitalization plan, click on the link [ID:nN12225996] (Reporting by Reese Ewing, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)