Indo-Asian News Service: India – Angola may foil Shell’s bid to sell shares to India
17-September-2004
India News – New Delhi, India’s attempt to acquire Royal Dutch Shell’s 50 percent stake in an offshore exploration block in Angola may fall through with the African nation likely to exercise its pre-emption rights.
At the same time, given the political ties between the two countries, Angola has agreed to consider India’s request for participation in the exploration, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said Friday.
“We are likely to get farming-in (participatory) interest through the Angolan state oil company’s share rather than through Shell’s share,” Aiyar said in a teleconference from Vienna, where he is attending a meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).