Brazil is expecting at least 15 billion reals ($7 billion) from any company or group seeking the rights to the country's largest oil find Libra, which is up for auction in October, an official with the country's regulator said Thursday.

Libra, with an estimated 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil, or enough to meet one and a half years of US oil use, is the world's biggest prospect to be put up for auction.

Production is expected to begin in five years.

Brazil expects more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil out of Libra, said the director-general of Brazil's National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), Magda Chambriard, on the sidelines of an industry conference in Singapore on Thursday.

Chambriard was in Singapore to promote the auctions of Brazil's pre-salt oil and onshore natural gas reserve areas.

The sale will be Brazil's first under the production-sharing contract (PSC) model. The winning bidder will be the company or group that offers Brazil the largest share of output to sell on its own account after development costs are paid off.

Under the PSC model, once the cost of exploration and development is covered by oil sales, then profit oil is shared between the contract holders and the government.

Under a 2010 law, in the sale of Libra and other unleased areas in Brazil's Subsalt Polygon, state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, will have to be the operator and put up 30 percent of all investment, even if it is not part of the winning bid group.

Reuters