UPDATE 1-Wintershall looks to Brazil for new oil production ventures

* To bid in Brazilian offshore oil exploration auctions

* Part of drive to boost sales, profit growth

* Frankfurt a new location option after merger with DEA(Recasts to add detail on Brazil, DEA merger, context)

By Vera Eckert

KASSEL, Germany, March 7 (Reuters) - BASF's oiland gas subsidiary Wintershall announced plans on Wednesday toexpand into Brazil's growing offshore oil sector as part of adrive to boost sales and profit this year.

Chief executive Mario Mehren told reporters his company,which is due to merge with Russian-owned German rival DEA, would compete in upcoming offshore licensing roundsin Brazil, possibly with partners.

"We have been very Norway-focused which is good, but we wantto have another area of exploration success," he said.

"The Brazilian coastline is viewed as one of the world'smost promising oil regions," he added.

Wintershall's assets so far stretch from oil fieldconcessions in Libya to subsea fields in the North Sea and toRussia's Arctic regions.

It has studied geological data and is ready to co-operate invarious arrangements for various assets in Brazil, as iscustomary in the oil and gas industry, Mehren said.

Foreign companies such as Exxon and Statoil, as well as Brazilian firms, could be open topartnerships, he added.

For Wintershall, Brazil would add to its activities inRussia, Argentina, Norway, Libya and Germany. Across the worldlast year, it repeated 2016's record output of 165 billion cubicmetres (bcm) of oil equivalent (boe).

Wintershall expects significant rises in sales and earningsbefore special items in 2018, after increasing both steeply in2017, thanks to higher volumes and higher commodity prices.

Oil prices last year increased 23 percent to $54 per barrelon average for North Sea grade Brent. Wintershall's internalcompany planning is based on an average price of $65 this yearand an exchange rate of $1.2 per euro.

It also sees gas prices remaining at current levels innorth-western Europe in 2018, after spot gas at European tradinghubs rose 24 percent last year.

The merger with DEA, which BASF said last week would likelyclose by the end of the third quarter, will bring synergies inGerman and Norwegian oil and gas ventures where the two operateseparately, and in administration costs, Mehren said.

This would likely affect the two headquarters at Kassel andHamburg, Mehren said, mentioning that Frankfurt, Germany'sbusiness capital, could become an option for moving certainoperations.

The merger will be followed by an initial public offering ofthe merged entity, which BASF said it did not expect to happenbefore 2020.

($1 = 0.8057 euros)(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Ludwig Burger and MarkPotter)