ONGC-OIL-IndianOil shortlisted by ConocoPhillips for stake sale
Hyderabad   16-Oct-2012

A consortium of state-owned firms - ONGC, IndianOil and OIL — is among the three groups shortlisted by US energy giant ConocoPhillips for a possible sale of stake in its six Canadian oil sands assets.

ONGC Videsh, overseas arm of ONGC, along with IndianOil and OIL had some weeks back placed a $5 billion bid for buying stake in six Alberta oil sands assets of ConocoPhillips. “We are one of the three shortlisted,” said a source.

Houston-based ConocoPhillips is selling as much as 50 per cent of its oil-sand reserves in Alberta.

“There are some producing assets and some exploration assets on offer,” the source said without giving more details.

ConocoPhillips has hired Scotia Waterous for selling stake in six Alberta properties that produce about 25,000 barrels of oil a day from an estimated 30 billion barrels of bitumen, used for road surfacing and roofing, in place. Development of these reserves could increase production to more than 500,000 bpd.

He however indicated that North America was one of the areas that OVL may be looking at. “Wherever there is an opportunity, we certainly look at them.”