OMV divests 30% stake in Rosebank
News Release, August 9, 2016 - 10:30 pm (CEST)
- Sale of 30% interest to Suncor Energy
- Important step of optimizing OMV’s upstream portfolio
OMV, the international integrated oil and gas company based in Vienna, has agreed to sell a 30 percent interest in the UK offshore oil and gas project Rosebank to Suncor Energy (“Suncor” ). Suncor, based in Calgary, is Canada’s largest integrated energy company. After this transaction, OMV’s interest will amount to 20 percent. The remaining stakes in the Rosebank joint venture are held by the operator Chevron North Sea Limited with 40 percent and DONG E&P (U.K.) Limited with 10 percent.
Johann Pleininger, OMV Executive Board member responsible for Upstream: “This transaction rebalances our OMV portfolio by reducing future investment requirements while retaining a large stake in the Rosebank development. At the same time, the addition of Suncor, with their substantial offshore experience, to the Rosebank consortium will strengthen the venture considerably as it moves towards project implementation.”
The reduction of OMV’s stake fits with its strategy of optimizing the upstream portfolio and becoming more efficient with regard to costs and investments. Under the terms of the agreement, Suncor will make an initial payment of USD 50 million on closing. The transaction is subject to conditions, including regulatory approval and is anticipated to close in the fourth quarter of 2016. Following the co-venturers approval of the Rosebank project final investment decision, OMV would receive an additional consideration of up to USD 165 million.
In connection with this transaction, OMV is realizing a pre-tax impairment in the amount of EUR 530 million for the 50% stake held in the Rosebank field which will be booked in Q2 2016.
The Rosebank field was discovered in December 2004 and lies about 130 km northwest of the Shetland Islands in water depths of approximately 1,110 m. The project is currently in the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase. The design capacity of the project is 100,000 barrels of crude oil and 80 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.
Background information:
OMV in the UK
OMV (U.K.) Limited, a 100% subsidiary of OMV Aktiengesellschaft located in London, has been active in the United Kingdom for over 20 years. OMV UK holds a considerable portfolio of licenses in the British North Sea and in the area west of the Shetland Islands. The company has been an operator there since 2004.
OMV Aktiengesellschaft
With Group sales of EUR 23 bn and a workforce of around 24,100 employees in 2015, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. In Upstream, OMV focuses on three core regions – CEE (Romania, Austria), North Sea as well as Middle East and Africa – and selected development areas. 2015 daily production stood at approximately 303 kboe/d. In Downstream, OMV has an annual refining capacity of 17.8 mn tonnes and approximately 3,800 filling stations in 11 countries as of end of 2015. OMV operates a gas pipeline network in Austria and gas storage facilities in Austria and Germany. In 2015, gas sales volumes amounted to 110 TWh.