* Canada's Brookfield and CPPIB, France's Engie may bid
-paper
* China's CNPC shows interest in pipeline company -paper
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-led oil
company Petrobras is expected to fetch as much as $6 billion
from the sale of a natural gas pipeline unit in Brazil's
industrialized Southeast, the Valor Economico daily newspaper
reported on Thursday.
Bids of between $5 billion and $6 billion for Nova
Transportadora do Sudeste are expected by a Tuesday deadline
from Canadian, French and Chinese companies, the paper said,
without citing the source for its information.
Potential bidders include Canada's Brookfield Asset
Management, China National Petroleum Corp CNPET.UL , and a
joint venture between the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board
CPPIBC.UL and France's Engie SA ENGIE.PA , Valor reported.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA PETR4.SA , as the oil company is
formally known, has plans to sell about $14 billion of assets
this year in an attempt to cut its debt and maintain cash amid a
plunge in world oil prices and a corruption scandal at the
company.
Petrobras' estimated $130 billion of debt is the largest in
the oil industry and one of the largest of any industrial
company in the world.
A Brookfield press spokesman in Toronto declined to comment
when contacted by Reuters. Engie's press office in Rio de
Janeiro declined to comment. Canadian Pension Plan Investment
Board officials were not available when called outside of normal
business hours. CNPC officials did not immediately respond to an
emailed request for comment.
Petrobras officials did not immediately respond to requests
for comment.