The oil and gas authority in Brazil announced on Tuesday it had awarded the contracts to exploit the Búzios and Aram oil fields lying offshore to the bidders that won the exploitation rights at auction, Agência Brasil reports.

The Brazilian state-run news agency quotes the authority as saying it has signed the contracts, along with the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, and Brazilian state-owned concern Pré-Sal Petróleo SA.

The report says a consortium of Petrobras of Brazil, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) and China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Co. Ltd (CNODC) was given the contract to extract oil from the Búzios field.

Agência Brasil says a separate consortium of Petrobras and CNODC was given the contract to extract oil from the Aram field.

Selling the rights to exploit the fields has earned the Brazilian government 73.2 billion reals (about US$14.1 billion), the news agency says.