Libya's plan to buy Verenex Energy Inc should not take long and it is well-placed to finance the deal, the country's most senior energy official said on Thursday.
Libya has said it will exercise its right to pre-empt a friendly C$10-a-share bid for Verenex from China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) . It has yet to make a formal offer.
"Sometimes it's very difficult to give an exact time-frame, but I hope it will not take long," Shokri Ghanem, the chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation, told Reuters television.
"Libya has quite a good fund," he said. "Most of the funds are invested in cash and cash is the king now, so I don't think we'll have a big problem regarding finance for this deal."
Verenex holds promising oil assets in Libya, home to Africa's largest oil reserves which has attracted a wave of interest from oil companies after the end of international sanctions.
With the assumption of debt, the C$10 a share offer from CNPC is worth C$499 million, the companies said when it was announced on February 26. The stock was unchanged at C$8.95 as of 1827 GMT.
Ghanem has previously stated that Libya would offer the same price as the C$10-a-share agreed by CNPC. He did not specify a purchase price in his comments on Thursday.
He said Libya had chosen to buy Verenex for commercial reasons.
Source: Reuters
2 comments:
it appears that libya is actually more keen on getting a reduced price or incresed fees as opposed to matching the CNOC bid. Not sure if they care too much about what the rest of the world thinks of them if they play tricks like this. Any comments?
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