Thailand's PTT Exploration and a joint venture between India's ONGC and GAIL, as well as US group Anadarko, had all been tipped as possible bidders for Cove, which put itself up for sale in January. But Investec analyst Stuart Joyner said he did not believe there would be an auction: The 195p proposed offer is unlikely to face a challenge in our view and, having been longstanding fans of the Cove story, we downgrade to hold. Our target price of 195p reflects the value suggested, which we think ascribes a fair amount of upside to the 15-30trn cubic feet of gross resources the consportium has found. Next in line in our view might be Ophir Energy (buy with a target price of 277p) where we think a bid would need to be pitched around 500p. FoxDavies analysts said the offer was a fair one, and put the whole sector on takeover alert. Shell A shares have dipped 3p to 2300.5p. Out of interest Ophir is up 27p at 393.4p.