Billionaire Batista OGX Penniless by ’14 Fuels Cash Hunt

The race is on for billionaire Eike Batista to find the money he needs for OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, the oil producer that’s on course to exhaust its $1.65 billion cash hoard by year-end.

OGX’s $2.56 billion of notes due 2018 rallied yesterday, after reaching a record-low of 57.2 cents on the dollar on April 18, as Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported Batista is in talks to sell a 40 percent stake to OAO Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest producer. The bonds, the year’s worst-performing emerging-market securities with more than $500 million outstanding, fell last week by the most since they were sold in May 2011 as a slump in crude output in March intensified concern that Rio de Janeiro-based OGX is facing a cash crunch.