ONGC will aggressively look to acquire 'producing assets' overseas to help meet 2018 production targets - Newswire
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the state-run Indian energy major, said it will "aggressively" seek to acquire energy assets overseas that are already producing output, according to a newswire report on 27 October.
D.K. Sarraf, ONGC's chairman, was cited by Reuters as saying that the company is now on the lookout to buy overseas assets that are already producing output to meet its targeted output of 400,000 barrels per day from its overseas assets by 2018.
With global oil prices down at USD 83 per barrel, valuations on oil assets abroad have become attractive for ONGC. Sarraf
said that ONGC wants to buy "producing assets" overseas, since it would not be possible for the company to ramp up production from "exploration block" assets to help meet its short-term production target.
But Sarraf also said in the report that ONGC remains interested in buying overseas exploration assets that could help the company meet its 2030 production target. Between 2013 and 2030, ONGC intends to invest USD 180bn to raise its oil and gas output from both domestic and overseas assets, the report noted.
It was recently reported in the press that ONGC will look at opportunities in the former Soviet Union, Africa (Nigeria and Angola in particular), Latin America, the US and Canada, as part of its planned INR 11tn (USD 180bn) Perspective 2030 growth strategy.
It was also previously reported that ONGC was looking at an offer from Russia’s Rosneft to invest in its Vankor and Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye oilfields as well as other assets in the Arctic.