Nation's biggest natural gas distributor GAIl has announced that it is under negotiations to acquire Ophir Energy's 10 per cent stake in gas blocks in Tanzania.
"We are in talks are irrespective of Singapore's Pavilion Energy reportedly buying half of Ophir's stake. We continue to be in dialogue," GAIl Director (Marketing) Prabhat Singh said on the sidelines of 8th Asia Gas Partnership Summit on Tuesday. GAIl was keen to buy part of Ophir Energy Plc's remaining 20% stake in blocks 1, 3 and 4, which are estimated to hold an estimated 15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas reserves.
Pavilion last month offered to pay $1.3 billion for a 20 per cent stake in three gas blocks offshore Tanzania in East Africa. While Singh refused to give details, industry sources said GAIl had put a price of about $600 million for a 10 per cent interest. Pavilion Energy, established by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek earlier this year, in a statement last month announced the acquisition saying the transaction is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2014.