Russia sets no terms on OVL’s Imperial buy

NEW DELHI: In a boost to ONGC Videsh���s bid to buyout Imperial Energy, Russia on Tuesday said it will not set any pre-condition like a stake for its state-run firms in exchange for giving approval to the acquisition.

���Actually our approach towards this deal is quite liberal and if the Indian company would like to acquire imperial energy, we are not going to put forward any demands,��� visiting Russian energy minister Sergey Shmatko told reporters here.

OVL, the overseas arm of state-run ONGC, was expecting that it might have to give 25-40% stake to a Russian company Rosneft in lieu of the regulatory approvals Kremlin gave for its acquisition of UK-listed firm.

Meanwhile, the fall in international oil prices notwithstanding, ONGC Videsh has said it would not revise its ��12.50 a share buyout of Imperial Energy.

���OVL has valued Imperial���s 2P (proven and probable) oil and gas reserves at $2.5-3 per barrel and the acquisition even at current oil prices is enormously beneficial,��� said a source associated with the transaction.

Imperial explores oil in Russia���s Siberia region and had the equivalent of 920 million barrels of proven and probable oil reserves as on December 2007, according to an audit by Degolyer & MacNaughton. ���2P��� tag means a 50% likelihood of recovery of the reserves.

Acquisition of imperial will cost OVL about $2.1 billion at current exchange rates. ���OVL had the option of revising bid price but it is not considering doing so,��� he said.