Europe

Mining giant Xstrata has agreed to acquire Australian iron ore developer Sphere Minerals for A$428 million (approx. €300 million), it has been announced.

Buying Sphere will increase Xstrata’s iron ore presence in Africa through the Australian company’s three iron ore projects in Mauritania. These include the $1.65 billion Guelb el Aouj development, operated asa 50/50 joint venture with Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM), Mauritania’s state-owned iron ore producer.

Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE has won a €200 million contract to build a mobile network for Telenor in Hungary, it has been announced.

The deal further cements the Chinese company’s position as a key supplier to European telecoms operators.

Under the terms of the contract, ZTE will build a mobile network for as many as 4.5 million users for Telenor in Hungary. It will provide the European carrier with radio and core infrastructure over the next five years.

Aberdeen-based exploration firm Dana Petroleum has received a £1.87 billion hostile takeover offer from South Korea's state-owned oil company KNOC.

The offer is equivalent to £18 per share—59 per cent above Dana's share price of £11.51 prior to KNOC’s interest first being announced.

Dana’s board rejected approaches from KNOC earlier this month.

UK satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat is to receive almost £218 million over the next 18 months from a co-operation agreement with US communications group LightSquared.

The agreement between LightSquared and Inmarsat aims to increase the contiguous broadband spectrum available to both companies and give LightSquared increased flexibility to roll out its fourth-generation (4G) network in the US. This will allow users without their own wireless network or limited geographic coverage to develop and sell their own devices, applications and services.

Edinburgh-based Melrose Resources has said that the opening of new fields in Bulgaria will boost the company’s production by 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The first of two Bulgarian fields—Kavarna—is expected to begin production in September. Kavarna and Kaliakra are both being developed as single well subsea tiebacks to the Melrose-operated Galata field platform. Kaliakra will follow, beginning production in October.

UK-based energy services group Hunting is to buy US electronics company Innova-Extel for $125 million to boost its well construction unit, it has been announced.

London-based Hunting, whose equipment is used in the construction and maintenance of oil and gas wells, is also seeking further purchases in order to transform into a higher margin, higher growth business.

India’s Vedanta Resources has said it will acquire a 51 to 60 per cent stake in Cairn Energy’s Indian unit for between £5.4 billion to £6.1 billion.

The move represents Vedanta's first foray into oil and gas, and will help Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy fund a drilling programme in Greenland.

Cairn India operates the country’s largest onshore oil field, and has a market value of approximately £8.6 billion.

Wagenborg Offshore is a Netherlands based company whose parent group Royal Wagenborg has more than a century of experience in providing maritime services in the Baltic Sea. Operations director Johan Adriaanse explains to John O’Hanlon why its expertise is in demand to support oilfield operations in Kazakhstan.

Deputy director of Boskalis Offshore Bas van Bemmelen talks to Jane Bordenave about the company’s cradle to cradle approach to projects and how it has come to be a world leader in subsea soil intervention.

Founded in 1995, Boskalis Offshore is the specialised oil and gas organisation within the Royal Boskalis Westminster Group. It is based in the Netherlands, but operates globally and has realised projects on every continent. It works to excavate trenches and provide coarse gravel cover for subsea cables and pipelines.

The UK’s biggest energy supplier, Centrica, is buying natural gas assets in Canada from Suncor Energy in a deal worth £229 million.

Direct Energy, Centrica's North American unit, will gain 241 billion cubic feet equivalent of natural gas reserves in the Wildcat Hills area of Alberta, increasing its resources by about 60 per cent to 641 billion cubic feet.

Twenty miles north-west of Calgary, the assets consist of 97 producing wells and related infrastructure, as well as 42,000 net acres of undeveloped land.