Indonesian oil and gas group Medco Energi Internasional Tbk got an extension to Jan. 31 to make a firm takeover offer for Ophir Energy Plc or walk away, the London-listed company said, adding the parties were discussing a 55 pence per share offer.

Earlier this month, Ophir rejected Medco's $437 million potential buyout offer based on 48.5 pence per share saying it undervalued the company and that Medco had initially mooted 58 pence per share.

Ophir's shares lost almost half of their value last year as it failed to find financing for a LNG project in Africa's Equatorial Guinea.

RELATED: Medco Energi Could Offer Roughly $436 Million For Britain's Ophir

This led to it losing its license for the project prompting it to warn of a $300 million write-down for the full year.

Ophir's current output of 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) combined with Medco's stated 2018 target of 85,000 boe/d would make Medco, which has been expanding, the seventh largest non-national oil company upstream producer in Southeast Asia, according to research firm Wood Mackenzie.

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