* Portugal's Galp flags one-year delay in four offshoreprojects
* Delays follow widening Petrobras graft probe
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - A widening corruption probeinto Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras is likely to delayby at least one year four major offshore oilfield projects,Portuguese partner Galp Energia said, in a first signof strain on foreign investors.
Galp, which is involved in nearly 30 on-shore and off-shoreoil and gas projects in Brazil, flagged a one-year delay in thebuilding of production ships for the Lula Sul, Lula Norte, LulaExtremo Sul and Lula Oeste fields, which it is developing withPetroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras).
"We have assumed on average a one-year delay in the pre-saltprojects," Galp chief executive officer Manuel Ferreira DeOliveira told investors in London on Tuesday.
"We've looked unit by unit at the state of development andconditions of the subcontractors. This was a deep exercise thatthe company did for itself and the level of uncertainty is stillhigh and we are fully confident that we are conservative to saythat on average we see a one-year delay."
The uncertainty is expected to lead to delays in thedelivery of four locally-made floating production storage andoffloading (FPSO) units after contractors have either gonebankrupt or been banned from receiving money from Petrobras dueto the corruption scandal, an industry source said.
Galps' forecast comes before Petrobras issues its ownguidance on project development in light of the investigationwhich has forced the resignation of its top management oversuspicions of price-fixing, bribery and political kickbacks thathave engulfed Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.
Britain's BG last month maintained a forecast to havedelivery of five FPSOs next year, but said it is "keeping a veryclose watch on any potential impact" from the probe.
The problems will delay a planned increase in outputcapacity by 600,000 barrels a day in the BM-S-11 block south ofRio de Janeiro that was purchased by Petrobras, Galp and BGGroup in 2000.
The Lula field, now in test production, produced 278,000barrels a day of oil and 12.1 million cubic metres of gas a dayin January, Brazil's oil regulator ANP says.
BM-S-11 is believed to hold about 8 billion barrels of oilin several fields and was the first major discovery in Brazil'sgiant "sub-salt" province first announced in 2007.
Petrobras is the operator of fields in BM-S-11 and owns 65percent. BG owns 25 percent and Galp 10 percent.
Galp's P-66 and P-67 domestically-produced FPSOs are nowplanned to start production in 2017 while P-68 and P-69 unitsare scheduled to go on stream in 2018, the company said.
Other major oil companies producing in Brazil include RoyalDutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Statoil,Repsol, Chevron and BP. (Additional reporting by Jeb Blount in Brazil, editing by DavidEvans)