Dana Petroleum Plc (LON:DNX) , the FTSE 250 oil and gas group, said Thursday that it noted the recent movement in its share price and confirmed that it had received a very preliminary approach which may or may not lead to an offer for the company. The potential suitor is rumoured to be South Korean national oil company, KNOC. KNOC spent C$1.8m on Harvest Energy in 2009 and is apparently keen to expand its production and reserves as part of South Korea's energy self-sufficiency target of 18 per cent by 2012. According to Dana Petroleum's statement, any discussions are at a very early stage and "as such there can be no certainty as to whether any offer will be forthcoming nor as to the level at which any offer might be made. Further announcements will be made in due course, as appropriate".
Last month, Dana agreed to buy Petro Canada Netherlands from Suncor Energy for €328m. Dana also recently announced two new oil discoveries in Egypt including a successful exploration well in the North Zeit Bay production sharing contract area, onshore Gulf of Suez in Egypt. DNX shares closed Thursday at 1177 pence, up 3.7% on the day. You can read further discussion on Dana here, including a detailed writeup of the recent 2010 AGM.
