Macauhub News Agency quotes Indian newspaper the Economic Times as reporting that chairman and chief executive DK Sarraf said: “We have made a proposal to buy the 10% owned by Anadarko Petroleum, and this time we are competing on our own, without the involvement of Oil India Limited.”
ONGC Videsh, in partnership with Oil India Limited, recently acquired a 10% stake in the same block of the Rovuma basin, owned by a subsidiary of private Indian group Videocon Industries, for US$2.48 billion.
Sources contacted by the newspaper said that the US group was asking for an amount of US$2.6 billion.
“There are tax implications and thus the officials from the US group plan to make up the taxes they will have to pay to the Mozambican state by asking for a higher price for the stake they have put up for sale,” said the source.
The Area 1 Block is operated by US group Anadarko Petroleum, with 36.5%, 10% of which is up for sale, and the remaining partners are Japan’s Mitsui & Co. (20%), Indian group ONGC Videsh and Oil India Limited, and Indian company Bharat Petroleum, with 10% each, Thai state group PTT with 8.5% and Mozambican state company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos with 15%
Source: Macauhub News Agency. For more information, click here.
