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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 03:50 GMT | more >>

Bourse confirms bid for DNO assets



By Upstream staff 

The Oslo stock exchange has confirmed that DNO was approached by a bidder for its oil assets in Iraq after a group of bondholders questioned the validity of the Norwegian independent oil company's claim of an approach.

"We have pretty close dialogue with DNO last week and we have documentation that confirms that the statement was correct," Oslo stock exchange spokesman Tor Arne Olsen told Reuters. "There was interest in the Iraqi licence."

A group of unnamed bondholders had also aired suspicions of price manipulation linked to DNO's announcement of the $700 million bid in a letter leaked to the Norwegian media last month.

Olsen said the stock exchange had not yet completed other investigations arising from the bondholders' letter.

"We are also looking into the letter by the bondholders, what kind of motive they could have," he said.

DNO, the first foreign company to drill for oil in post-war Iraq, has rejected accusations that it had not been sufficiently transparent and said it would fully co-operate with the inquiry.

Last month DNO said it had rejected an offer from a large international oil company for its oil production licence in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq but gave few details, something the group of unnamed bondholders questioned.

DNO's share price surged as much as 15% after the news of the offer, even though the company cut its 2007 oil production target and acknowledged difficulties in exporting production from Iraq.

It also posted a bigger-than-expected 77% jump in second-quarter operating profit the same day.


Tuesday, 04 September, 2007, 09:07 GMT  | last updated: Tuesday, 04 September, 2007, 09:07 GMT

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