12.12.06, 2:04 AM ET
LONDON (AFX) – India’s ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd (OMEL) is in advanced talks with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and France’s Total to take them on as equity partners in the Nigeria blocks OPL 212 and 209, reported the Economic Times citing ONGC chairman and managing director RS Sharma.
The equity being offered to Shell and Total could be around 10-15 pct, the report said, quoting unnamed sources.
OPL 209 is close to Shell’s Bongo fields, which has reserves of 800 mln barrels, the report said.
If the deal goes through, Total will be partnering the Indian upstream major for the first time, while Shell already partners ONGC’s foreign investment unit, OVL, in Brazil’s Campos basin.
‘Shell had relinquished its first right in the Campos basin to enable a stake for OVL. It is only logical that similar stakes are offered where it makes commercial sense to have them as partners,’ Sharma told the ET.
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