INDIA’S BIGGEST state-owned energy explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, is considering bidding for part of ConocoPhillips Canadian oil sands holdings worth about $5 billion, a source with direct knowledge of the situation has said.
The Houston-based company has been looking to sell assets in a number of countries, including Nigeria, as part of a global restructuring.
ConocoPhillips said in January that it was selling a stake in six Alberta properties that produced 12,000 barrels of oil a day from an estimated 30 billion barrels of bitumen.
Asked if ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, was interested in buying the assets, the source said: “It’s in the process. It is seriously looking at it. “
State-run Oil India is also looking to buy stakes in ConocoPhillips’ oil sand assets in Canada, its head of finance said last week.
Of the six Alberta projects offered, only Surmont, run in a joint venture with France’s Total, is producing oil. The other properties are the Thornbury, Clyden, Saleski, Crow Lake and McMillan Lake assets. The land totals 715,000 acres. – (Reuters)
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