No one picked up on this news????????
Looks old!
18.03.2009 09:50
3rd UPDATE: Libya To Buy Verenex, Block China Deal -Oil Head
By Spencer Swartz
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
VIENNA (Dow Jones)--Libya's top oil official said Wednesday Libya will exercise its first right of refusal and buy the assets of Canadian oil producer Verenex Energy Inc. (VNX.T), blocking a roughly $400 million deal that China had sought with Verenex.
Libya will pay the same amount for Verenex that China National Petroleum Corp. had agreed to pay, Shokri Ghanem, head of the Libyan National Oil Co., told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of an energy conference here.
Libya is moving to buy the company out of "commercial interest" as the North African country tries to boost its oil-pumping capacity, Ghanem said.
"There are some formalities we are working out, but we are going to exercise our right to buy Verenex assets," Ghanem said.
Verenex and CNPC weren't immediately available to comment.
With around 42 billion barrels in proven oil reserves, the biggest in Africa, Libya is hoping to raise production capacity from around 2 million barrels a day to 3 million barrels a day by 2013 with the help of foreign oil companies.
Verenex Energy said in late February that China National Petroleum Corp. had agreed to buy the company. But a preemption clause in that deal gives the Libyan government the right to buy Verenex's assets.
Calgary-based Verenex said last month the all-cash deal with the Chinese company's international arm, CNPC International Ltd., would be for 10 Canadian dollars a share ($7.97 a share at the time), a 28% premium to the company's closing price Feb. 25 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Verenex's main asset is its 50% stake in an oil block in northwest Libya, an area rich in hydrocarbons, along with other assets in the area.
China had hoped to add Verenex's assets to a hoard of others that state-run Chinese energy companies have been snapping up around the world in recent years to secure supplies for the country's development needs.
Ghanem downplayed comments from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in January in which he said the government could nationalize the assets of foreign oil companies due to the sharp fall in oil prices. Gaddafi has yet to make a final decision on the matter.
AI
