Imperial acquisition deal to be concluded in 4-5 weeks: Deora

New Delhi, Sept 5 (PTI) India hopes to conclude the acquisition of U.K.-listed Imperial Energy in 4-5 weeks, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said Friday.

"The deal is subject to Russian Government approval and we are hopeful they will help us," Deora told reporters here.

When asked how long will it take for Kremlin to approve the deal, he said, "I don't know that. But I am hopeful it will be done in four to five weeks."

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas subsidiary of
state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, had last month won
approval of Imperial board for its 1,250 pence a share bid
(1.42 billion pounds) for Imperial Energy.

OVL is now awaiting approval of Kremlin to takeover the
company, which has assets in Tomsk region of the western
Siberia in Russia.

Deora has already spoken to Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev about Imperial acquisition. If Kremlin approves,
Imperial would be biggest overseas acquisition for OVL.

The board of Imperial had last month recommended OVL's
1,250 pence a share bid, but it has to win approval of Russian
authorities to materialise.

The Kremlin may want the Indian firm to sell part of the
Imperial stake to a Russian state oil group such as Rosneft,
which OVL is open for doing so.

Imperial Energy will give OVL, which already has a 20
percent stake in Sakhalin-1 project in Far East Russia, access
to Siberia, an area believed to hold huge hydrocarbon
deposits.
PTI