An Argentine oil tycoon who once courted the Taliban is the mystery bidder for Sterling Energy, the troubled oil group that is listed in London.

Carlos Bulgheroni, credited as the first western oil man into Turkmenistan through his family-owned company Bridas, is understood to have made an offer in the past few weeks. He is keen to take over the company to get a foothold in Iraqi Kurdistan, where big oil companies have begun to show major interest and Sterling holds an oil field licence.

Investors, including Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien, who owns 15%, and Invesco, which holds 29%, were unimpressed by the approach because it was below the company’s £50m market value. Talks continue.

Bulgheroni’s approach for the debt-laden group is opportunistic. Sterling announced last week that Harry Wilson, chief executive, was stepping down. An earlier deal to sell its US business to pay off debts fell through and a repayment waiver granted by the banks expires next month. Its shares have dropped 80% in the past year.

Dick Stabbins, the chairman, said last week that the “focus is on finding a resolution to our debt shortfall. . . we remain in discussions with interested third parties and seek a sale of assets”.

Bridas, founded by Bulgheroni’s father in 1948, is a partner with BP in Pan American Energy, one of South America’s largest independent oil groups. He was the first western oil man to bid successfully for gas and oil fields in Turkmenistan after the fall of the Soviet Union and struck up a friendship with the then president, Saparmyrat Nyazow.

After a major gas find there, he spent months in neighbouring Afghanistan, trekking across mountains and drinking tea with Taliban warlords as part of an effort to build a pipeline through the country to take the gas to Pakistan and India. US giant Unocal won the pipeline deal but it was later scrapped.

Bulgheroni covets Sterling, which also has prospects in Gabon, for its licence in the Sangaw oil field in Kurdistan, which it shares with Addax Petroleum. The latter was taken over by the Chinese state-owned oil group Sinopec last month, just days after a pipeline opened the region to oil exports for the first time.

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