M&A

23 February, 2010

New Delhi eyes foreign energy assets

NEW DELHI, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- India conglomerates eyed the acquisition of a Dutch petrochemical company in an effort to exploit recessionary prices and escape tight national regulations.

Reliance Industries Ltd. during the weekend offered $14.3 billion to take control of bankrupt Dutch oil refiner LyondellBasell Industries. A separate bid by Reliance puts oil sand deposits in Alberta in its sites through a bid for Canada's Value Creation Inc., The Wall Street Journal reports.

India relies on imports to meet 70 percent of its oil demand to the tune of $90 billion per year. New Delhi is in various stages of negotiation with Iran and Turkmenistan, meanwhile, to tap into regional gas reserves.

Reliance operates the largest oil-refining complex in the world. Its facility in the India state of Gujarat process more than 1 million barrels of crude oil each day. Reliance processes the type of crude found locked in Alberta oil sands.

New Delhi, the Journal notes, will face pressure in its push into foreign markets as Asian companies look to gobble up hydrocarbons to feed their booming economies. China's Sinopec Group last year forked over more than $7 billion to buy oil and gas assets in the Middle East and Africa.

Source: United Press International, Inc.