Schlumberger Scraps Bid for Eurasia Drilling Stake

U.S. oilfield services giant Schlumberger has withdrawn its bid for a stake in Russia's Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC) Russia's Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) said on Monday.

Schlumberger, which has its own business in Russia, said last month it would withdraw its application to buy a stake in EDC if it didn't get regulatory approvals soon.

Schlumberger's office in Moscow had no immediate comment.

The U.S. company had planned to acquire up to 49 percent of EDC, Russia's largest oil services provider.

The withdrawal marks Schlumberger's second failed attempt to buy EDC. In 2015, the U.S. company agreed to purchase 45.65 percent of EDC for $1.7 billion, but the deal fell through after the FAS repeatedly postponed its approval.

Schlumberger made its latest bid last year.

The approval process has become more complicated in recent years due to a deterioration in relations between Russia and the West over Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, as well as allegations of a nerve agent attack in Britain and meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova and Polina Devitt; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)

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