Kochhar & Co has advised Indian state-owned oil company Oil India Ltd (OIL) on an agreement entered into by OIL and ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) to buy a 10 percent stake in a Mozambique gas field from India's Videocon Group for $2.48 billion, with Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co advising the seller.
The Hong Kong office of Simmons and Simmons acted as the international counsel for OIL and OVL.
ONGC, which faces diminishing supplies from its ageing oil and gas fields in India, has been buying interests in overseas assets recently. Demand for gas in Asia's third-largest economy far outstrips production, as India's need to keep prices cheap for strategic industries deters investment in costly producing areas and in pipelines and terminals for more expensive LNG.
Recent discoveries have turned Mozambique's Rovuma offshore field into a major draw for global energy producers and boosted Mozambique's gas reserves to around 150 trillion cubic feet, enough to supply world number-one LNG importer Japan for 35 years. The Rovuma field has the potential to become one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producing hubs by 2018, and is located close to the India market.
The Kochhar team was led by Delhi partner Ngangon Junior Luwang, while the Amarchand team consisted of Delhi managing partner Shardul Shroff and partners Vidyut Gulati, Nikhil Narayanan and Puja Sondhi.
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