Jun 2008 - OPEC

OPEC bulletin 6/08
26
Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), an investment arm
of the Abu Dhabi government, while the balance of 50.9
per cent is owned by institutional investors around the
world.
Though OMV may not necessarily have the name recognition
of, say, Saudi Aramco or ExxonMobil, it conducts
vigorous activities abroad and its financial results are far
from anaemic. Last year, the company had consolidated
sales of a little more than ¤20 billion, while earnings
before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to ¤2.18bn,
an across-the-board increase of six per cent over the previous
year.
Considered a second-tier player, the company is, in
fact, the largest stock exchange-listed industrial company
in Austria with a market capitalization of ¤15bn.
It employs 42,727 people worldwide and judging from
the flurry of news releases over the past ten months,
and from its own strategic vision for 2010, it has positioned
itself as the number one oil and gas company
in Central Eastern Europe. A number of well thought
out acquisitions over the past few years, and several
key strategic investments in several core regions bear
this out.
Refining and Marketing made up 81 per cent of group
sales in 2007. But it is in the firm’s Exploration and
Production (E&P) Division that OMV really shines. The
company’s current proven reserves stand at 1.22 billion
boe and daily production volume is 322,000 boe. OMV
aims to increase this level to 500,000 boe/d by 2010.
Headed by the dynamic Helmut Langanger, Member of the
Executive Board, and Head of the E&P Division, OMV has
a balanced international portfolio in 21 countries across
the world. More importantly, it has deep country knowledge
built up through its long-term involvement in areas
of the world that other, less intrepid companies, have
ignored. In fact, its presence in some of OPEC’s Member
Countries goes back decades.
The Islamic Republic of Iran
In Iran, which has the second largest gas reserves and the
third largest oil reserves in the world, OMV is involved in
two main activities. The first entails an exploration licence
acquired in 2001 to conduct exploratory work close to
the city of Ahvaz, a major oil centre, in the southwestern
province of Khuzestan, bordering Iraq and the Gulf.
With 34 per cent participation, OMV is the lead operator
of a consortium that includes Spain’s Repsol and Chile’s
Sipetrol, each with 33 per cent. “It’s a good partnership,”
said Langanger.