Schlumberger Won't Extend Deadline to Buy Eurasia Drilling Stake

By Selina Williams 

LONDON--Oil services giant Schlumberger Ltd. said it won't extend a Sept. 30 deadline on its $1.7 billion offer for a stake in Russia's largest onshore drilling firm Eurasia Drilling Co. Ltd., after approval for the deal has been delayed for months by Russian officials.

Schlumberger said it would instead focus on other merger and acquisition opportunities.

The deal would have represented an unusually large investment by a U. S-listed company in Russia's oil industry at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.

In January, Schlumberger said it had agreed to buy a 45% stake in EDC, with an option to buy the rest of the company at a later date.

The transaction was originally expected to close by the end of March, but was extended several times after Russian approval of the deal got bogged down over concerns that EDC's activities could be affected if western sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine are tightened further.

EDC said in a statement that Schlumberger had advised that it wouldn't extend the deadline. EDC said it would provide an update on the transaction on Sept. 30.

A spokeswoman for EDC declined to comment further.

Write to Selina Williams at [e-mail]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 25, 2015 06:23 ET (10:23 GMT)

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