A consortium led by a joint venture between Spain's Repsol YPF, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp and Norway's Statoil found oil at an offshore well in Brazil, state-controlled oil company Petrobras said in a securities filing on Tuesday.

Petrobras, which is a minority partner in the venture, said the consortium struck oil at the BM-C-33 bloc located 195 kilometers (122 miles) east of Brazil's coast. The well, which is within an area known as Pao de Acucar, is part of the country's so-called subsalt reserves discovered in 2007 that lie several miles beneath the seabed under a thick layer of salt rock.

Repsol and Sinopec together own 35 percent of the area's exploration rights, the same stake owned by Statoil. Petrobras has a 30 percent stake in the consortium.