Final investment decision for Aasta Hansteen gas field
January 9, 2013 - 9:30 am (CET)
- Final investment decision taken to develop the promising Aasta Hansteen gas field including new pipeline infrastructure
- World’s largest floating spar platform in the Northern Norwegian Sea
- Production is planned to commence during 2017
OMV announces its support for the final investment decision of the Aasta Hansteen gas field development in the Northern Norwegian Sea. This involves a floating spar platform which will be the largest in the world and the first spar for Norway. With this step, OMV demonstrates growth of its Exploration and Production business, and further shows the commitment to establish Norway as a core country in its portfolio.
The spar platform will be deployed by the Aasta Hansteen Joint Venture with Statoil (75%) as operator, ConocoPhillips (10%) and OMV (15%) as partners. It is going to be the first spar on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the largest in the world and the first to have storage tanks for condensate. It has a total height of more than 200 m, a hull diameter of 50 m and a condensate storage capacity of 160,000 barrels.
Production from the Aasta Hansteen field is expected to commence during 2017.
Jaap Huijskes, OMV Executive Board Member responsible for Exploration and Production: “We are committed to this project. It is designed as a future hub and it will therefore unlock great potential in the region. Together with the recently acquired stakes in two other development projects, Zidane and Edvard Grieg, Norway will add substantially to OMV’s production growth.”
OMV will also participate in the investment of a new 36 inch, 480 km gas pipeline and an upgrade of the Nyhamna gas processing plant. These two elements together constitute the Norwegian Sea Gas Infrastructure (NSGI) project in which OMV holds a share of 9.073%. “The NSGI project offers the necessary infrastructure to transport the gas from the Aasta Hansteen field to the relevant markets in Europe”, says Hans-Peter Floren, OMV Executive Board Member responsible for Gas and Power.
Background information:
OMV Norway
OMV has been active in Norway since 2007 and has built up a portfolio of 17 licenses in the Continental Shelf and the Barents Sea of which 8 are operated by OMV. By year end 2011, a 20% share of the Zidane field development project in PL 435 was acquired followed by the acquisition of a 15% stake in the Aasta Hansteen development project in PL 218/218 B in 2012. In October 2012 OMV signed the contract to acquire a 20% stake of the Edvard Grieg oil field development.
OMV Aktiengesellschaft
With Group sales of EUR 34.05 bn and a workforce of 29,800 employees in 2011, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. In Exploration and Production, OMV is active in two core countries Romania and Austria and holds a balanced international portfolio. OMV had proven oil and gas reserves of approximately 1.13 bn boe as of year-end 2011 and a production of around 288,000 boe/d in 2011. In Gas and Power, OMV sold approximately 272 TWh of gas in 2011. In Austria, OMV operates a 2,000 km long gas pipeline network with a marketed capacity of around 101 bcm in 2011. With a trading volume of around 40 bcm in 2011, OMV’s gas trading platform, the Central European Gas Hub, is amongst the most important hubs in Continental Europe. In Refining and Marketing, OMV has an annual refining capacity of 22 mn t and as of the end of 2011 approximately 4,500 filling stations in 13 countries including Turkey. OMV further strengthened its position through the ownership of a 97% stake in Petrol Ofisi, Turkey’s leading company in the retail and commercial business.