India’s Videocon to buy stake in Sudan oil field

BOMBAY, April 15 (Reuters) – Indian financial services company Videocon Industries Ltd. has decided to invest $100 million for a 76 percent stake in an oil field in Sudan, Chairman V.N. Dhoot said on Friday.

“The Videocon group wants to expand in the energy sector and Sudan is opening up and has good oil fields,” he told Reuters.

Energy-hungry India, which imports 70 percent of its oil needs and barely produces the gas it consumes, has been encouraging companies to chase up energy ventures.

Videocon signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Khartoum province in Sudan last month for investing and developing oil projects there, the company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

It said Videocon’s board was also considering investing in the development and exploration of oil in India and in the Middle East.

The group, which also makes televisions and home appliances, already has a stake in the Indian oil field, Raava, located in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the country’s eastern shore.

ONGC Videsh Ltd., a unit of India’s largest oil producer, state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd., is already active in Sudan with equity stakes in some projects.