ONGC eyes stake in Tullow Oil's African assets

India's state-owned explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is planning to acquire a stake in the African assets of the UK-based independent oil and gas explorer Tullow Oil Plc, according to media reports.

A deal, if it finally materialises, would come four years after ONGC lost out to CNOOC, China's third-largest oil company, in acquiring a 50-per cent interest in Tullow Oil's oil fields in Uganda.

Tullow Oil has a large portfolio of exploration and production assets with interests in over 140 licences across more than 20 countries, producing an average of 78,400 boepd in first half of 2014 and generating sales of $1.3 billion.

In Africa, the London-based company has assets in Ghana, Uganda, Gabon, Kenya, Congo (Brazzaville), Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Namibia.

It also has assets in the UK, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, French Guiana,  Guyana, Suriname and Greenland, has been selling its gas assets across Europe and Asia,  while focusing on oil exploration activities in Norway.

The Financial Times last month reported that ONGC is planning to acquire producing assets worth around $180 billion (Rs11,00,000 crore) as part of its plan to raise production seven-fold by 2030. (See: ONGC to invest $180 bn to ramp up production seven-fold by 2030; report)

Apart from planning to raise its overseas oil production in two stages - to 60 million tonnes of oil plus oil-equivalent gas by 2030 - or 1.2 million barrels per day, ONGC is looking to acquire oil assets across all of the world's oil producing areas.