* Canada's Brookfield and CPPIB, France's Engie may bid
-paper
* China's CNPC shows interest in pipeline company -paper
(Adds company comment)
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-led oil
company Petrobras PETR4.SA 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 Inc BAMa.TO , 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, 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. A Canadian Pension Plan Investment
Board press official in Toronto declined to comment. CNPC
officials did not immediately respond to an emailed request for
comment.
Petrobras' press office declined to comment in an emailed
response to questions.