Norway’s state-controlled energy group Statoil is in pole position to buy the Brazilian business of US-listed explorer Anadarko for about $3bn, which would mark the latest big foray by a global oil group into the South American country.

People with knowledge of the talks said Statoil was the frontrunner for the assets, having bettered offers by France’s Total and Denmark’s Maersk Oil, which had also been in the running.

A sale, if completed, is likely to value the unit at around $3bn, although Anadarko may choose to include some small assets from other units in the sale, one of the people said.

For the Norwegian group, if its bid proves successful, the move would represent a major expansion into Brazil, which is regarded as one of the most prolific frontiers for deep water exploration.

Anadarko has licenses for about 1m gross acres in Brazil, some of it in the so-called pre-salt fields which have attracted interest from some of the world’s largest energy groups, including Chinese national oil companies such as Sinopec.

The Brazilian pre-salt, which lies under a layer of salt that in places is 2km thick, is estimated to contain as much as 50bn barrels of oil

Anadarko has made four discoveries in Brazil – the largest being Itaipu, in the Campos Basin, which has 300m barrels of oil.

Statoil has in the past acquired assets in Brazil from Anadarko. The Norwegian group has seven exploration licenses there, including one in the vast Peregrino heavy-oil field, some 85km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

Statoil has made two high impact discoveries in Brazil in recent months – the first, Peregrino South, in June last year, and the latest, Pão de Açúcar, last week. Statoil’s partners in the Pão de Açúcar prospect are Repsol YPF of Spain andPetrobras, the state-backed Brazilian oil company.

For Anadarko a sale of the Brazilian assets would allow it to focus on its oil and gas discoveries elsewhere in the world. It recently found a vast natural gasfield off the coast of Mozambique, thought to contain as much as 30tn cubic feet.

Cove Energy, a UK-listed oil explorer which owns an 8.5 per cent stake in the Mozambique field, put itself up for sale in January and has since attracted bidsfrom Royal Dutch Shell and PTT Exploration, the state-controlled Thai energy group.