Indian state groups Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) have agreed to pay US$2.48 billion for the stake owned by India’s Videocon Industries in an oil block in Mozambique, Indian newspaper the Economic Times reported.

In a statement, ONGC Videsh, the group’s company for international business, said that the agreement meant the group was stepping into a business with worldwide scale and would help it to achieve production targets of 20 million tons of oil by 2018 and 60 million tons by 2030.

The deal is the ONGC group’s third significant acquisition after it had paid US$1 billion for the 2.7 percent owned by Hess Corp in Azerbaijan’s largest oil field.

The group also signed a deal to buy the 8.4 percent stake owned by ConocoPhillips in an oil project in Kazakhstan, which, in the meantime, has faced some obstacles from China, according to the Indian newspaper.

Officials from Oil India Ltd said that the natural gas extracted from the Area 1 Block, in the Rovuma basin, northern Mozambique, would be shipped to India. Liquefaction of the natural gas is expected to begin in 2018.

The Area 1 Block is operated by US group Anadarko Petroleum, with 36.5 percent, 10 percent of which is up for sale, and the remaining partners are Japan’s Mitsui & Co. (20 percent), Indian group Videocon Industries and Indian company Bharat Petroleum, with 10 percent each, Thai state group PTT with 8.5 percent and Mozambican state company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos with 15 percent. (macauhub)