The hot pursuit of UK's Imperial Energy by India's ONGC Videsh has turned more interesting as India knocks on its ally, Russia's doors, to get the required clearances and to keep Russian oil companies at bay. “We have good working experience in Sakhalin. Russsia doesn’t like large European or Western MNCs. They think these big companies try to manipulate and they like small Asian companies,” said former oil secretary, Sushil Tripathi.
OVL has bought 6 per cent in Imperial from founder chairman and will have to buy Schroder, Deutsche, Fidelity's 15 per cent within 45 days. The bid can be nullified only if a counter offer is above 13.7 pounds per share. The deal may be not be value accretive but will boost ONGC's dwindling production profile as its domestic fields grow. All eyes are now on the Chinese oil firm Sinopec. The big question is whether it will make a counter bid for Imperial Energy.