Schlumberger Won't Extend Deadline to Buy Eurasia Drilling Stake
September 25 2015 - 6:38AM
Dow Jones News
By Selina Williams
LONDON--Oil services giant Schlumberger Ltd. said it won't
extend a Sept. 30 deadline on its $1.7 billion offer for a stake in
Russia's largest onshore drilling firm Eurasia Drilling Co. Ltd.,
after approval for the deal has been delayed for months by Russian
officials.
Schlumberger said it would instead focus on other merger and
acquisition opportunities.
The deal would have represented an unusually large investment by
a U. S-listed company in Russia's oil industry at a time of
heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.
In January, Schlumberger said it had agreed to buy a 45% stake
in EDC, with an option to buy the rest of the company at a later
date.
The transaction was originally expected to close by the end of
March, but was extended several times after Russian approval of the
deal got bogged down over concerns that EDC's activities could be
affected if western sanctions against Russia over the crisis in
Ukraine are tightened further.
EDC said in a statement that Schlumberger had advised that it
wouldn't extend the deadline. EDC said it would provide an update
on the transaction on Sept. 30.
A spokeswoman for EDC declined to comment further.
Write to Selina Williams at selina.williams@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 25, 2015 06:23 ET (10:23 GMT)
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