RIO DE JANEIRO- A consortium of France's Total SA, Qatar Petroleum and Petronas won the exploration and production rights for an offshore block near Brazil's coveted offshore pre-salt region on Thursday, agreeing to pay the government a signing bonus of 4.029 billion reais ($978 million).
Total, which has a 40% stake in the consortium, will be the operator.
($1 = 4.12 reais)
(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Marta Nogueira; editing by Jason Neely) ((gram.slattery@thomsonreuters.com; +55-11-95057-1453))
