New Delhi: India may consider buying BP's stake in a natural gas field in Vietnam after the British company battling the worst US oil spill agreed to sell assets as part of a plan to raise funds to meet liabilities.
"We have read that BP may offer its stake in the field and we will be very happy to consider it," Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora said by telephone yesterday from Vietnam. Deora said he will discuss the plan with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung tomorrow.
BP has said it plans to sell some $10 billion (Dh36 billion) of assets over 12 months to help pay for damages related to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), India's biggest energy exploration company, is spearheading the South Asian nation's quest for energy resources overseas, competing with China for fields from Africa to Venezuela.
Good opportunity
"Vietnam as a geography will be easy for investments and ONGC knows the geology of the area," said Jigar Shah, head of research at Kim Eng Securities India in Mumbai. "ONGC has been trying very hard to expand overseas and this is a good opportunity."
ONGC has a 45 per cent stake in Block 06.1 off the south Vietnamese coast, in which BP, the operator, has a 35 per cent share, according to the South Asian nation company's website.
The Indian explorer sold shares in the Lan Tay field in Vietnam to BP after winning the exploration licence for the area in 1988, according to the website of ONGC Videsh Ltd, the Indian company's overseas unit.
The area started producing gas in January 2003. ONGC's share from the project was 1.848 billion cubic meters of gas in the year ended March 2009, according to the website. ONGC owns a 100 per cent stake in two other offshore blocks in Vietnam, which do not produce oil or gas.
BP said on Tuesday it agreed to sell oil and gas fields in the US, Canada and Egypt to Apache Corp for $7 billion and that it plans to sell assets in Pakistan and Vietnam.
