Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has taken control of Imperial Energy after 96.8 per cent shareholders accept its takeover offer.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corp has deferred investments in Imperial Energy Plc to raise crude oil production and will rather consolidate the western Siberian operations of the UK-based firm it acquired recently.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation R S Sharma are planning a visit to Russia in the first week of next month, hoping the Russian government would give its assent for the proposed acquisition of UK-listed Imperial Energy.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, announced that it has acquired 15 per cent in UK-listed Imperial Energy and formally launched a negotiated takeover bid for the company at $2.6 billion (equivalent to around Rs 11,500 crore), which the company's board has approved.
In an effort to stem a possible counter-bid by China's Sinopec and others, ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas exploration subsidiary of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, has through its advisor Deutsche Bank approached the large institutional investors of Imperial Energy to acquire their holdings.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), is believed to be close to making a $2.5 billion bid to takeover Russia-focused oil company Imperial Energy.Imperial Energy is an upstream oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Old timers in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) still remember how in early 2000 its overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), was on the verge of closure. Though OVL was set up in 1965, the only discovery the company had made till then was in Vietnam offshore, with more investment needed to monetise it. In 2001, when OVL started looking for new blocks abroad, the company's previous acquisition was 13 years old.
As much as 8 billion rubles (about Rs 1,000 crore) of dividend income belonging to Indian oil firms is stuck in Russia after the Putin administration clamped down on dollar repatriation, officials said on Friday. Indian state oil firms have invested $5.46 billion in buying stakes in four different assets in Russia. These include a 49.9 per cent stake in Vankorneft oil and gas field and another 29.9 per cent in TAAS-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha fields.
To raise funds for Imperial buy, create 'acquisition currency'.
Imperial Energy, which operates in Siberia's Tomsk region and far eastern Kamchatka, has no strategic fields and deposits under its control, business channel RBC TV reported quoting sources in the natural resources and environment ministry. The London-based oil company owns a number of licences and hopes to produce 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2009 and 80,000 bpd by 2011, which could be directly exported to energy-hungry India.
The total number of M&A deals during the first eight months of this year stood at 346, with an announced value of $22.74 billion as against 456 deals amounting to $48.23 billion in the corresponding period in 2007, according to the data compiled by Grant Thornton. There was an increase in high-value deals in August.
Though OVL has made a solo bid of about $2.5 billion for takeover of Russia-focused Imperial Energy, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation may rope in a company like Rosneft to win Moscow's approval for the acquisition, London-based investment banking sources said. OVL is mindful that no company can be successful in taking over a company having assets in Russia unless it has the backing of Moscow.
The D1&D3 fields in KG-D6 block were originally certified to hold 10.03 trillion cubic feet of proved plus probable (2P) reserves, of which about 2 Tcf have already been produced in last three years.
Russia has disqualified state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp from bidding for the giant Trebs and Titov fields in northwest Russia, a development that an Indian executive claimed was based on "flimsy" grounds.
Seeking greater cooperation with India, Russia's Tomsk city in Siberia on Friday invited Indian hi-tech companies to establish innovative ventures in the region.
India has acquired a Russian oil company and bought equity stake in an oil field project in Venezuela through consortium route, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
The Indian firms will develop the Carabobo-1 block in Venezuela's Orinoco Belt with Spain's Repsol YPF SA and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bdh, ONGC said.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday in an effort to secure energy assets, including UK-listed Imperial Energy Plc.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of India's largest oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, has bought UK-based Imperial Energy, which has oil producing assets in Russia, at a valuation of $3 per barrel of oil reserves
OVL can walkout of the estimated 1.3 billion ($1.9 billion) deal to acquire Imperial, which has oilfields in Russia, if less than 90 per cent of Imperial shareholders accept its offer of 12.50 pounds a share by Tuesday afternoon.
A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs was specially convened this morning to consider OVL's Imperial bid, as Tuesday is the last date for making the offer to the target company's shareholders. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired the meeting that had just one agenda and lasted one-and-half hours, but no official word was available.
The fall in international oil prices notwithstanding, ONGC Videsh Ltd will not revise its pound 12.50 a share buyout of Imperial Energy Corp Plc as the acquisition priced UK-listed firm's in-place oil reserves at $2.5-3 per barrel.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, will make an offer to acquire shares of the United Kingdom-listed Imperial Energy Corp Plc at 12.50 pounds a share by December 9.
Oil producer ONGC on Friday said the fall in international oil prices would not change the company's bid for acquisition of UK-listed Imperial Energy.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, has put in a bid to buy stake in a discovered oil block in Angola, after a consortium of two Chinese companies has already reported to have bid $1.5 billion last month, confirmed a top official of OVL on condition of anonymity.
India hopes to conclude the acquisition of UK-listed Imperial Energy in 4-5 weeks, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Friday. OVL is now awaiting approval of Kremlin to takeover the company, which has assets in Tomsk region of the western Siberia in Russia.
India on Tuesday pitched for a stake in vast oil and gas fields as well as LNG terminals in the frozen Artic of Far East Russia as it looked to import more oil from the former Soviet republic as part of a strategy to diversify its energy basket.
Prime Minister Modi appreciated the vision of Putin for the welfare for Russia's Far East, saying the Russian President has opened up investment opportunities for India in the region.
Trade sanctions on Russia by Europe and the US offer an opportunity for India, but the devaluation of the rouble may play spoilsport
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