Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA, the Brazilian oil company controlled by billionaire Eike Batista, said it found signs of crude off Brazil’s coast and that it is considering a share split next year.

The discovery is in the BM-S-29 block in shallow waters of the Santos Basin, about 130 kilometers (81 miles) off the coast of Sao Paulo state, Rio de Janeiro-based OGX said today in a regulatory filing. The company may also split its shares by December next year, Chief Executive Paulo Mendonca told analysts today in the Brazilian city.

OGX raised 5.87 billion reais ($3.30 billion) in its June 2008 initial public offering as investors bet Batista could emulate Brazil’s state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s success at finding oil. Batista, who owns about 62 percent of OGX, has $4 billion to plough into exploration, production and acquisitions, with first output expected by late 2011.

“We’re studying the whole of Brazil for new acquisitions,” Mendonca said. “We’re still a long way off pre- salt but if we get the opportunity to enter pre-salt we’ll study that too.”

OGX surged 10.8 percent to 1,540 reais in Sao Paulo trading, to its highest value since its initial public offering in June 2008. A stock split may occur 18 months after listing, according to the Brazilian securities regulator’s rules.

Doubling Share Price

The shares have more than doubled this year on speculation Batista may replicate Petrobras’s success in finding crude off Brazil, site of the largest oilfield discovery in the Americas in the past three decades.

Share values may quadruple once reserves are proven, which should occur in 2010, Mendonca said. This is because estimated oil and gas resources are valued at about $4 a barrel and measured reserves about $15 a barrel, he said.

OGX has a 65 percent controlling stake in the BM-S-29 development. A unit of Denmark’s A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S owns the remaining 35 percent. The rig Sovereign Explorer, provided by Transocean Ltd., began drilling on Aug. 16.

The company estimates that it holds about 4.8 billion barrels of oil and gas and plans to spend $2 billion during the next three years drilling about 50 wells, Chief Financial Officer Marcelo Faber Torres also said today in Rio de Janeiro. The company may also spend $1 billion on acquisitions and new business, he said.

Drilling Results

“We started drilling at BM-S-29 in mid-August,” Torres said. “We should announce the results of the drilling at BM-S- 29 by the end of the year.”

Results of drilling at the company’s BM-C-43 block in Campos Basin should also be known by year-end, and drilling should start at four more wells by that time, Torres said.

A reconfirmation of the company’s resources should be released by the end of October in a report from the U.S.’s Degolyer and MacNaughton, he said.

OGX acquired seven onshore blocks last week in Maranhao state with “very positive gas prospects,” Torres said.

Mendonca also said Batista is unlikely to sell his stake in OGX.

“Batista’s crazy about oil,” he said. “He plans to integrate his mining, logistics and oil activities in Brazil.”

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Last Updated: October 2, 2009 18:04 EDT