ONGC’s formal offer for BP stake in next few weeks: Oil Secy
CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES (INDIA) news desk
DD news, July 27,2010
The overseas arm of ONGC Videsh Ltd and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam will make a formal offer for buying crisis-hit British energy giant BP’s stake in a gas field in the South Asian country “in the next few weeks,” Oil Secretary S Sundareshan told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“PetroVietnam is talking to BP, we are also talking to them… I think in next few weeks, they (OVL and PetroVietnam) are likely to make an offer,” he said.
OVL and PetroVietnam are likely to make the joint offer for BP’s 35 per cent stake in the gas field off Vietnam coast.
“We have given our interest (for BP’s stake). And we have also stated that we would like to work collectively with PetroVietnam,” he said.
Hanoi has also stressed that the British firm must give its partners priority in the stake sale.
OVL, backed by sister explorer Oil India Ltd, and Vietnam’s national oil firm PetroVietnam will make a joint bid for BP’s 35 per cent stake in offshore gas block 06.1.
While OVL has 45 per cent stake in the gas block, PetroVietnam has the remaining 20 per cent.
Last week, the Indian Oil Minister had met Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the South Asian nation’s trade minister for forging a joint approach to acquire BP’s stake. ____________(SP-27/07)