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ONGC plans foreign acquisitions worth $15 B
By agencies
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Friday, 10 March 2006, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is in talks to acquire foreign oil and gas assets worth over $15 billion, company chairman Subir Raha said today.
"We are engaged in discussions for transaction worth more than $15 billion," he said.
Declining to give details, Raha said ONGC, its subsidiary ONGC Videsh Ltd and ONGC's joint venture company with steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, ONGC-Mittal Energy Ltd, were in talks for several acquisitions spanning across the globe.
OVL, ONGC's foreign arm, has committed over $4.5 billion in 14 countries including Australia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Sudan, Syria and Vietnam.
Industry sources said the company was in talks to acquire oil assets in Kazakhstan, Cuba, Myanmar, Venezuela, Brazil, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Sierra Leone, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
ONGC was in talks to acquire Exxon's 30 percent interest in BC-10 field in Brazil and was in dialogue to take a block in the gigantic South Pars gas field in Iran.
It plans to participate in bidding rounds in Yemen and Egypt, sources said adding OVL was in talks to acquire Makhambet and Satpayev blocks in Kazakhstan, Block 34 in Cuba, RSF-6 and RSF-9 onland blocks in Myanmar, San Cristobal field in Venezuela, exploration blocks in Bangladesh.
Raha said ONGC had financial muscle to conclude the deals and may even consider borrowing from market if the size of the acquisition was very large.
Raha confirmed OVL's teaming up with Russian oil company Itera for acquiring OAO Udmurtneft, a subsidiary of TNK-British Petroleum, which has licenses to develop 26 fields in Russia. He, however, declined to give details.