OMV agrees to divest parts of its Upstream business in Tunisia

OMV News, November 6, 2018 - 4:40 pm (CET)

OMV, the international integrated oil and gas company based in Vienna, has reached an agreement to sell its 100% owned subsidiary, OMV Tunisia Upstream GmbH, to a subsidiary of Panoro Energy ASA, an Oslo-listed, London-based international independent oil and gas company. OMV Tunisia Upstream GmbH holds 49% interests in the Cercina/Cercina Sud, El Ain/Gremda, El Hajeb/Guebiba and Rhemoura concessions in Tunisia and 50% of the shares in the Thyna Petroleum Services S.A. Operating Company (TPS). The agreement will be signed shortly following an equity private placement exercise by Panoro. The agreed purchase price is USD 65 mn, subject to closing adjustments. The effective date of the transaction is January 1, 2018. Average production of the divested assets in 2017 was around 2 kboe/d, net to OMV.

The remaining stakes in the concessions and in TPS continue to be held by the Tunisian National Oil Company (ETAP). 

“The divestment represents a further step in optimizing OMV’s Upstream portfolio”, said Johann Pleininger, OMV Board Member Upstream and Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board.

OMV continues to be committed to Tunisia and the ongoing development of its hydrocarbon resources in south Tunisia, in particular the development of the Nawara Concession, involving gas field infrastructure and a pipeline from a central processing plant in the Concession to Gabes (approx. 300 km to the north).

Background information:

OMV Aktiengesellschaft
OMV is producing and marketing oil and gas, innovative energy and high-end petrochemical solutions – in a responsible way. With Group sales of EUR 20 bn and a workforce of around 20,700 employees in 2017, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. In Upstream, OMV has a strong base in Romania and Austria and a balanced international portfolio, with the North Sea, the Middle East & Africa and Russia as further core regions. 2017 daily production stood at approximately 348,000 boe/d. In Downstream, OMV operates three refineries with a total annual processing capacity of 17.8 mn tons and more than 2,000 filling stations in ten countries as of year-end 2017. OMV runs gas storage facilities in Austria as well as in Germany; its subsidiary Gas Connect Austria GmbH operates a gas pipeline network in Austria. In 2017, gas sales volumes amounted to 113 TWh.