OMV to invest 180 million Euros in an oil field in the Shetland Islands

Austrian oil group OMV, the majority shareholder of Petrom, announced on Wednesday that the Schiehallion joint venture, in which OMV owns 5.88% of the shares, is to spend 3 billion Euros on the re-development of the Schiehallion oil field to the West of Shetlands, according to APA.

OMV"s share of the investment will amount to 180 million Euros, which would come from its own resources. The Schiehallion oil field has produced over 300 million barrels since production started in 1998 and an estimated 325 million barrels of resources are still available.

"The re-development of the field will allow expanding production until 2035 and possibly beyond", said Jaap Huijskes, head of exploration and production at OMV.

The project stipulates the replacement of the current FPSO ship with a new ship 270 m long and 52 m long. Furthermore, massive investments will be made in undersea facilities and additional wells will be drilled. The new facilities are expected to commence production in 2016.

Schiehallion JV comprises OMV (U.K.) Ltd (5.88%), BP (Operator, 33.35%), Shell (33.35%), Hess Ltd (15.67%), Murphy Petroleum (5.88%), and Statoil (UK) Ltd (5.88%).

For OMV, the British offshore production gives only 2% of OMV"s total production, whereas Romania provides about 56.5% of the hydrocarbon production of the Austrian group.

Austrian group OMV is the majority shareholder of Petrom, with a stake of 51.01%, whereas the Ministry owns about 20.64%, and the Proprietatea Fund owns 20.11%. Since Monday, the Bucharest Stock Exchange has been running the secondary public offering for the sale of shares owned by the Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Business Environment in OMV Petrom.