The London-listed oil company, Imperial Energy, which operates in Russia, is progressing in its talks with India’s Oil and Natural Gas Company. It is being thought that soon it will agree for the takeover deal valuing Imperial at about $2.8bn.

The sources have revealed that negotiation between the state owned ONGC and Imperial are ongoing with succession and soon a bid could be announced before Imperial’s next results. The bid has been submitted by ONGC to buy Imperial, the sale of which most probably will be announced next week.

An official form the Indian government reported, “We are waiting for it. We have submitted the bid. Our bid is very competitive ... it will take 2-3 days, maybe next week you will hear something.”

On Thursday, it was reported that a bid by ONGC has been approved by the government.

Currently, ONGC has 205 stakes in Russia's Sakhalin I project, but had been keeping an eye for long to buy more stakes in the former Soviet Union.