ONGC Videsh (OVL) and its partner Oil India (OIL) have offered up to US$5bn to buy a combined 20 per cent stake in a Mozambique gas field jointly owned by Videocon and US-based Anadarko Petroleum
Bidding closed last weekend for the stake, of which 10 per cent each was offered by Anadarko and Videocon.
OVL and Videocon officials have, however, declined to comment until an official announcement has been made to stock exchanges in the second week of April.
A banking source said OVL and Oil India had made arrangements for funding of up to US$5bn for the Mozambique stake.
Anadarko currently has 36.5 per cent stake in the project, while Japan’s Mitsui has a 20 per cent stake. Thai firm PTT has an 8.5 per cent share, while the Mozambique government-owned ENH holds another 15 per cent.
The purchase will be likely to be completed by the end of the first half of 2013 and output would start from mid-2013.
For OVL, the acquisition would be another feather in its cap. Last year, OVL had agreed to pay US$5bn for ConocoPhillips’s 8.4 per cent stake in a Kazakhstan oilfield. The Kashagan field, located in the shallow waters of the Kazakh North Caspian Sea, is the world’s largest development project.
