Mittal may shift Kazakh oil assets to OVL tie-up

World’s fifth-richest person and chief executive officer of the largest steel producer Arcelor Mittal, Lakshmi N Mittal said on Wednesday that he plans to transfer the Kazakhstan oil assets, he acquired recently for $980 million from Russia’s Lukoil, to his joint venture firm with ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL).

In April, Mittal had acquired the Russian oil firm Lukoil’s 50% stake in Caspian Investments Resources (CIR). CIR has equity in five Kazakh oil fields—Alibekmola, Kozhasai, Northern Buzachi, Karakuduk and Arman—in the Aktyubinsk and Mangistau regions. Current production from the fields, which have total proven reserves of some 270 million barrels, is more than 40,000 barrels per day and is set to increase in the coming years.

Read more in Financial Express

RIL,OVL to bid jointly for oil blocks in Iraq

In a bid to leverage their oil exploration and production expertise, Reliance Industries (RIL) and ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), are planning to jointly bid for oil and gas blocks in Iraq.

The two companies are already renegotiating for a stake in the Tuba field and the Block-8 in western Iraq.

OVL, Reliance and Algeria’s Sonatrach were in talks with the Saddam Hussein regime before the US took over Iraq in 2000. The UN sanctions that came in after 2000 prevented further talks from talking place.

“We are ready to partner OVL in overseas search for oil and gas exploration blocks. OVL is in the process of getting approval for a joint business with us,” a senior Reliance official said. OVL official declined to comment. Read more at Business Standard