India hopes ONGC will seal Imperial deal in 5 weeks

NEW DELHI, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora said on Friday he hoped state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC.BO) would to be able to conclude a $2.6 billion deal to take over Russia-focused Imperial Energy Corp IEC.L in four or five weeks.

"I recently met the Russian president in Tajikistan. He was very cooperative ... I hope the deal will be concluded in 4-5 weeks," Deora told reporters. Last month, Deora said Russia was "very supportive" of the deal. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma, Editing by Mark Williams)