After facing stiff competition for acquisition of Imperial Energy, ONGC Videsh Ltd is again faced with Chinese competition for the Angolan oil and gas assets owned by US-based Marathon Oil Corp.
Chinese firm Sinopec or China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, which is rivalling OVL for taking over Russia-focused oil company Imperial Energy, has got China National Offshore Oil Corp to make a joint bid for Marathon's 20 per cent stake in offshore Block 22, industry sources said.
OVL, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, and Brazil's Petrolea Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) were in the contention before the Chinese entry.
Marathon is selling a 20 per cent stake in offshore block 32, where 12 discoveries had unearthed 1.5 billion barrels of oil reserves.
Marathon will retain a 10 per cent stake in the field slated to start productin in 2012.
Exxon Mobil Corp has 15 per cent and French firm Total SA 30 per cent.
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Angola's Sonangol has 20 per cent stake and Petroal the remaining 5 per cent.
Indian and Chinese firms have rivalled each other for prime oil and gas properties overseas and wherever there is a direct competition, its the latter which has emerged winner.
OVL lost out on Canadian firm Encana's properties in Ecuador when a Chinese consortium bid USD 1.42 billion. It also lost PetroKazakhstan to China National Petroleum Corp's USD 3.6 billion bid.
In Angola, it lost out on taking 50 per cent in BP-operated Block 18 when the African nation preferred China.
OVL officials were tight-lipped about the bid.
OVL currently has 38 oil and gas projects across 18 countries. It got 6.811 million tonnes of oil in 2007-08 from its six producing assets in Sudan, Russia, Vietnam, Syria and Colombia.