Tuesday, December 20, 2005
ONGC, CNPC JV win maiden bid in Syria
Press Trust of India / New Delhi December 20, 2005
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and China National Petroleum Corporation have won the bid to acquire about 37% stake in Syrian oilfields of Canadian oil company Petro-Canada for euro 484 million.
This was the first time that Indian and Chinese companies had made a joint bid for acquiring oil properties overseas.The two government-run firms, often competing against each other in the race for acquiring overseas assets, are sharing equity in 50:50 ratio.
In all eight firms were in race for Petro-Canada's stake in Al Furat venture in Syria.
"Its an important milestone. We have been working on this for quite some time. Instead of competing whereever possible we should work together," petroleum secretary S C Tripathi said.
ONGC's overseas arm OVL had competed with the Chinese firms for oil properties in Central Asia, West Africa and Latin America. They were pitched head-on for buying Canadian firm Petrokazakhstan, which has most of its operations in Kazakhstan, and Encana's ecuador assets.