OVL to make offer for Imperial shares by Dec 9

ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), will make an offer to acquire shares of UK-listed Imperial Energy Corp Plc, at 12.50 pounds a share by December 9.     

OVL, last week, won Russian government approval for taking over Imperial, which has assets in Tomsk region of western Siberia.     

"The formal offer document and acceptance forms are to be posted to Imperial shareholders by December 9," the UK-listed firm said. "All the pre-conditions to the share offer have now been satisfied."     

It, however, did not give a date for completion of the deal. Acquisition of Imperial will cost OVL about 1.4 billion pounds or $2.1 bn at current exchange rates.     

Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) last week granted approval in respect of the ownership of Russian entities by entities controlled by a foreign government. Government of India holds 74 per cent stake in ONGC.     

Prior to this, FAS cleared the acquisition under anti-monopoly regulations and stated that Imperial's assets were not strategic.     

Since July, Imperial is producing 11,000 barrels of oil per day. Output will reach 25,000 bpd by fiscal-end with 18 wells coming on stream. Production would rise to 35,000 bpd (about 1.75 million tonne) by 2009-end.     

The company also plans to start commercialising gas from 2010. Imperial board on August 26 had agreed to takeover bid by Jarpeno, a wholly-owned subsidiary of OVL.