* Will sell two stakes for total of $25 mln
* Company plans to raise $15.1 bln through asset sales byend-2016
* Sales comes against background of low oil prices (Adds background on Petrobras asset sales, stake sale)
By Caroline Stauffer and Jeb Blount
SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, July 1 (Reuters) - Brazil'sstate-run oil company Petrobras moved quickly on Wednesday todeliver on promises to shed assets and raise cash by announcingthe sale of stakes in two offshore oilfields and a study of waysto sell part of its fuel-distribution unit.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formallyknown, agreed to sell its 20 percent interests in the Bijupiráand Salema oil and natural gas fields in Brazil's Campos Basinnortheast of Rio de Janeiro to Petro Rio SA for $25million, according to a statement.
Petro Rio was formerly known as HRT Participações emPetroleo SA. The fields produce an average total of around22,000 barrels per day of light crude at 28 to 31 degrees on theAmerican Petroleum Institute (API) scale.
Petrobras also said late Wednesday it was looking at ways tosell part of its Petrobras Distribuidora SA fuel-retail unit,which operates a network, Brazil's largest, of more than 7,000service stations.
Both sales are aimed at helping meet a promise made Mondayto raise $15.1 billion with asset sales by the end of 2016, partof a new five-year expansion plan. The asset sales are needed tohelp Petrobras cut its more than $120 billion of debt, thelargest of any oil company, and finance $130.3 billion of2015-2019 investments.
When added to another $42 billion of asset sales, unitclosures and corporate restructuring scheduled for 2017-2019,Petrobras hopes to raise more than $57 billion, an amount largerthan its current market value of $56 billion.
Some though have suggested the asset sale plans are overlyambitious considering the recently decline in world oil prices,a sluggish world economy. Reuters reported last month thatPetrobras was unhappy with the price offered to sell part of itsethanol unit.
Petrobras is also trying to sell stakes to internationalmajor oil companies in much larger fields in the neighboringSantos Basin.
Wednesday's stake sale is worth less than two-tenths ofone-percent of its 2015-2016 goal. The sale of the fieldsfollows Petro Rio's January purchase of 80 percent of the areasfrom Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Petrobras said an offering of shares in PetrobrasDistribuidora will meet the Novo Mercado standard ofBM&FBovespa's Sao Paulo stock exchange. The Novo Mercadorequires the exchanges highest level of shareholder rights.
A Petrobras Distribuidora sale would reverse a November 2002decision to buy out minority investors and delist the company. (Editing by Bernard Orr and Joseph Radford)
