Through the deal BP will increase its biofuel production to 22 million tonnes from 10 million tonnes a year, firmly focusing on Brazil as its biofuels production and consumption hub.

To grow, BP expects to squeeze more out of the existing assets of the combined entity, rather than buy more land to plant sugarcane, Sanyal said.

A BP spokesman said it was too early to talk about possible job cuts.

(Reporting By Susanna Twidale and Shadia Nasralla, editing by Deepa Babington)

Stocks treated in this article : Bunge Ltd, BP plc