A joint venture of Oil India (OIL) and ONGC Videsh (OVL) is in race for the 10 per cent stake of Videocon Energy Ventures in MozambiqueÂ’s Rovuma gas basin.
The joint venture firm would compete with energy firms like ExxonMobil, PTT Exploration and Production Public Company, Shell, BP, and China’s Sinopec for the stake. Videocon plans to offload the stake and raise $3 billion (Rs 16,000 crore) to repay some of its debts.
In 2008, Videocon bought the stake in the southeast African nationÂ’s Rovuma-I basin for $75 million. Anadarko, which has 36.5 per cent stake in the basin, is the operator. BPRL, the exploration and production arm of Bharat Petroleum Corp, owns 10 per cent in the Rovuma basin. While Mitsui has 20 per cent and Cove Energy owns 8.5 per cent, Mozambique ENH holds 15 per cent in the basin.
Early this year, Anadarko announced recoverable gas in the range of 35 trillion cubic feet (tcf) to 65tcf from the basin. The operator has already formed marketing teams, which will be talking to companies in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and India to sell gas from the basin.
To begin with, the consortium plans to sell only 10 million tonnes in two trains. The two trains that the consortium will put in place would initially require $18-20 billion, of which it would raise around $14 billion in long-term loans.
The consortium members are expected to buy the rest in their individual capacity. Further investments would be taken care of from the revenues the project brings.
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