STGP is the key project slated to boost the country’s flagging gas output. Austria’s OMV is banking on the 140mn cfd pipeline to enable the $800mn, 100mn cfd development of its Nawara gas discovery 700km south of Tunis. OMV holds a third of the consortium charged with STGP development, state firm ETAP 50% and Eni a sixth.
Proposed Nawara volumes were last year doubled to accommodate the feed-in of the Cherouq discovery following OMV’s February 2011 takeover of the Tunisian assets of US firm Pioneer. This deal made OMV the key operator in southern Tunisia (see map) and added 5,000 b/d to OMV’s flagging existing Tunisian production (see chart). (CONTINUED - 1339 WORDS)
