Austria's OMV eyes up Albania bounty
Upstream, June 4
By Iain Esau
AUSTRIA'S OMV has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) for acreage off Albania, writes Iain Esau
The PSC was signed between the Albanian government, OMV and Sweden's Lundin Petroleum with the two oil companies each holding a 50% stake in the contract area.
Helmut Langanger, OMV's head of exploration and production, said: “The new licence enlarges our portfolio in Albania. We will use state-of-the-art 3D seismic technology to search for oil and, for the first time in Albania, also for gas.”
Sizeable gas fields have been discovered and exploited in the Adriatic Sea in nearby Italian and Croatian waters.
Within the next four years, OMV plans to reprocess 1000 kilometres of 2D data, shoot 400 square kilometres of 3D and drill one exploration well in the Duressi block.
OMV and Lundin jointly undertook exploration activities for block D onshore Albania but, in an agreement with the state-owned National Petroleum Agency, they negotiated to suspend block D operations and to transfer the remaining obligation of work to Duressi.
OMV first became involved in upstream activities in Albania in 1991 and via asset acquisitions and the purchase of Preussag Energie's portfolio in early 2003, it became the leading international exploration and production player in the former Communist country.
The Vienna-based player is also engaged in onshore activities in blocks 1, 4 and 5. Together with Greece's Hellenic Petroleum, OMV is currently drilling an exploration well in block 5. |
