Brazil shipbuilder OSX gets $420 mln in financing

* OSX to buy first oil platform from Singapore yard

* Still planning location of shipyards in Brazil

By Denise Luna

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Brazilian shipbuilding start-up OSX OSXP3.SA has obtained $420 million in financing to buy its first oil production platform from a foreign supplier, an OSX director said in an interview on Wednesday.

OSX, which is owned by Brazilian billionaire magnate Eike Batista, launched an initial public offering earlier this year but still has not built its shipyards and expects it will need to buy the first two platforms from other shipbuilders.

Roberto Monteiro, finance and investor relations director for OSX, said the financing would be provided by a syndicate of banks led by Norway's DVB Bank which also includes ING, Santander, Credit Agricole and ABN.

"We're going to sign (the deal) here in Rio ... in September," he said.

OSX plans to supply a total of 48 platforms for Batista's oil and gas start-up company OGX (OGXP3.SA), which has made repeated crude discoveries off the coast of Rio de Janeiro but is not scheduled to produce its first oil until next year.

The first platform has an estimated cost of $600 million with a production capacity of 100,000 barrels per day and will be used in the offshore Campos Basin, Monteiro said.

The company is planning to hold a bidding round for the second platform.

It has not yet made a final decision about where it will build the shipyards, but is evaluating possible locations in Rio de Janeiro and in the state of Santa Catarina.

Brazil is seeking to develop its shipbuilding industry to spur local economies and ensure oil revenues from vast offshore deposits can be channeled into economic development.

The country will spend tens of billions of dollars in the coming years to build deepwater drilling rigs and offshore production platforms that can pump oil from reserves deep below the ocean's surface under a thick layer of salt, a region known as the subsalt.

Some critics say relying on domestic shipbuilding risks boosting the cost of the oil projects and possibly delaying them if new companies are unable to deliver equipment on schedule. (Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Richard Chang)