ONGC, Oil India submit $1.5 bn joint bid for Murphy Oil's Malaysia assets

State-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp and Oil India Ltd have submitted a joint bid worth about $1.5 billion to buy Murphy Oil Corp's Malaysian oil and gas assets, sources directly involved in the process said.

Arkansas-based Murphy, which has interests in oil and gas fields in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei and Australia, has invited bids for a 30 percent stake in its Malaysian assets, Reuters previously reported.

State explorers including ONGC, India's largest oil and gas exploration company, have been looking overseas as they struggle to boost the country's energy security and arrest decline from local gas fields.

S.P. Garg, acting managing director of ONGC Videsh, ONGC's overseas business arm, was not available for a comment, while Oil India Chairman Sunil Kumar Srivastava declined to comment.

Murphy Oil did not respond to a request for comment.

(Reuters)