Thai state group PTT Exploration & Production has extended the deadline for shareholders of Cove Energy to accept its offer of 240 pence per share, or a total of US$1.9 billion, to buy the Irish company until 13 July.

In a statement the Thai group said that until the previous deadline, of 8 July, just 0.25 percent of Cove Energy’s shareholders had accepted its offer.

There are two offers on the table to buy Cove Energy: One from PTT and another from Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell, the latter for 220 pence per share of a total of US$1.7 billion, which has a deadline of 11 July.

The interest in Cove Energy, whose shareholders put it up for sale in December 2011, is the result of an 8.5 percent stake in an oil field in the Rovuma basin, northern Mozambique, operated by US group Anadarko Petroleum.

The remaining partners in the block, in which huge natural gas reserves have been found, are Japan’s Mitsui & Co., with 20 percent, India’s Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Videocon, with 10 percent each, Mozambique’s ENH (15 percent) and Cove Energy (8.5 percent). (macauhub)