The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs tonight gave the go-ahead to ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) to pay up close to $2 billion — its highest ever investment — to South Atlantic Petroleum for its 45 per cent equity in discovered Nigerian oil and gas field Akpo.The proposal had to be rushed through as the offer has to be submitted tonight for OVL to clinch the deal. Otherwise, the field — with an estimated reserve of 1.6 billion barrels of oil — would have gone to state-run Chinese firm CNOOC Ltd, sources said. This would be a major victory for India as Chinese oil companies had been lobbying hard to get shares held by South Atlantic Petroleum which was controlled by former Nigerian defence minister Theophilus Danjuma.South Atlantic Petroleum is selling the stake in the field, which after 2008 will pump 225,000 barrels a day of sweet crude oil. Its development will cost OVL another $4 billion, said sources.
