SAU PAOLO: OVL (ONGC Videsh), the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has won an oil exploration block in Brazil.

OVL paid $6,80,000 for the offshore S-M-1103 block in the Santos basin, a company official said.

The company was among the host of global energy giants that were awarded six blocks in Brazil's eighth annual auction of oil and gas concessions.

"(S-M-1103) has potential for natural gas and light oil," he said.

Italy's ENI paid nearly $140-million to outbid Brazil's state oil company Petrobras, a consortium comprised by Norway's Norsk Hydro and Sapin's Repsol YPF, and a separate bid by Shell to win the S-M-857 deep-water block.

The minimum bid for the block was 2 million reais while ENI agreed to pay 307.4 million reais ($140 million).

Petrobras will explore 1 block, S-M-982, on its own and three in consortia with Hydro and Repsol.