ONGC to delist Imperial from LSE on March 9

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will delist Imperial Energy Plc at the London Stock Exchange on March 9 and plans to consolidate the company's operations in western Siberia, Russia.

ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of the state explorer, paid $2.1 billion to acquire UK-listed Imperial Energy Corp Plc. "We took control of Imperial on January 13 and have since then restructured the board," a senior company official said.

OVL Managing Director and CEO R S Butola will be the new Chairman of Imperial, which has oil fields in western Siberia. Peter Michael Levine, who was Chairman of the company before the OVL takeover, has been included in the reconstituted board as non-executive director.

Three other directors -- Kenneth Forrest, Robert Shepherd and Pierre Godec -- have resigned, have been replaced by Anupam Mathur (director, commercial, OVL), J Thomas (director, exploration, OVL) and SP Garg (director, finance, OVL), respectively.

It has, however, retained Chief Executive Officer Simon Christopher Hopkison and Group Finance Director John Hamilton.