Austria’s OMV has long seen the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as key to its ambitions to be a truly international and vertically integrated oil firm.
But its choice of MENA countries has not always turned out for the best. Back in 2010 the firm was producing 33,000 b/d net in Libya, mainly from the 60,000 b/d capacity Zueitina fields it shares with US firm Occidental. At the time Libya provided almost 20% of OMV’s oil output making it the firm’s third most productive upstream province. But output collapsed to just 10,000 b/d in 2011 with the Libyan revolution. As with other producers in the country, hopes that a 2012 output rebound could be sustained floundered. (CONTINUED - 1791 WORDS)
