UPDATE 1-AED Oil: knows of no reason for share price surge
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SYDNEY, May 15 (Reuters) - Australian oil producer AED Ltd (AED.AX), a takeover target of China's Sinopec Group, said on Thursday it was not aware of any reason for a surge in its share price in the past two days.
It made the comments in response to a query by the Australian stock exchange after its shares jumped 17.5 percent to A$3.16 on Thursday, adding to a near 18 percent leap in the previous session.
Sinopec's Hong Kong-listed unit Sinopec Corp (0386.HK) agreed in March to buy a majority stake in assets of AED for A$600 million ($556 million), marking China's first oil acquisition in resource-rich Australia. An AED spokesman said earlier on Thursday there was speculation that the Chinese government may soon approve the A$600 million ($560 million) takeover of AED by state-controlled Sinopec Group.
The Australian government's foreign investment review body has already approved the Sinopec deal.
AED became a favourite of investors last year when it said it was likely to have up to 100 million barrels of recoverable oil at its Puffin and Talbot fields off northwest Australia, up sharply from an earlier estimate of 40 million barrels.
But its stock has plunged from a record A$11.40 in October as technical problems slashed output from Puffin North East to just 6,000-10,000 barrels per day (bpd), well short of its initial forecast of 30,000 bpd.
The stock took a further hit in February after Norwegian oil services firm AGR Group (AGRGR.OL) said AED was overdue in paying an AGR subsidiary about A$41.5 million. (Reporting by Jonathan Standing, editing by Jams Regan)
