Dragon Oil, a Dubai-based explorer active in Turkmenistan, said its largest investor has made an offer to buy the shares it doesn’t already own.
Emirates National Oil, owner of 53 per cent of Dragon, has offered to buy the remaining shares “for a premium” to its 509.5 pence closing price on March 13, the state-owned refining company said in a statement on Tuesday. Dragon soared on the news, gaining 13 per cent to close at 602 pence in London, giving it a market value of £2.96 billion (Dh16.04bn).
“There can be no certainty that any firm offer for the company will be made nor as to the terms on which any firm offer might be made,” Dragon said in a separate statement.
Emirates National has been seeking new oil supplies. Dragon produced an average of 78,790 barrels of oil a day last year with sales of $1.09bn. The company, which is exploring in Iraq, Algeria and Egypt, is seeking to increase that to 100,000 barrels a day by 2016.
While focused mostly on projects in Turkmenistan, Dragon has been looking to expand outside of central Asia and last year signed an accord to explore in the Gulf of Suez with Egyptian authorities. The company withdrew a £492 million offer for Petroceltic International in December following the collapse in crude prices.
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