GoI scraps Nigeria oil bid by ONGC

By agencies   |   Friday, 16 December 2005, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The Indian government has blocked plans by state owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. to invest $2 billion in a Nigerian oil field, forcing the company to seek energy assets elsewhere to feed demand in Asia's fourth-largest economy. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, speaking to reporters in New Delhi today, didn't say why the government rejected the plan. Oil & Natural Gas wanted to buy a stake in the Akpo deepwater oil project from South Atlantic Petroleum Ltd., two people involved in the transaction said on Nov. 30. China's state-owned Cnooc Ltd. also submitted a bid, they said. India lags behind China in acquiring oil and gas assets as the world's two fastest-growing major economies seek the energy supplies to support future expansion. Oil & Natural Gas lost out to Chinese companies that agreed to pay $5.6 billion for assets in Kazakhstan and Ecuador, in part because of price. Theophilus Danjuma, who was previously Nigeria’s defense minister and a former army chief, owns South Atlantic. India's Cabinet, which met yesterday, at the same meeting approved a separate plan by Oil & Natural Gas to spend as much as $820 million to buy Exxon Mobil Corp.'s unit in Brazil.