Russia’s anti-trust office has given approval to India’s major exploration firm ONGC to acquire London-listed, Russia-focused oil firm Imperial Energy.

According to the sources, ONGC has agreed the acquisition of Imperial for US$ 2.6 billion in late August.

The sources further revealed that the proposed deal marks ONGC’s second investment in Russia, where the conglomerate already has 20 percent stake in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas consortium headed by US major Exxon.

According to the reports, Imperial had a total of 920 million barrels of oil equivalent of proven and probable reserves as of December 2007.

Scrip of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ended the day (Friday, 7 November) at Rs 741, down 0.29 percent on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of shares traded at BSE was 448,671 (Friday).