The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) OMV and Occidental Petroleum from the US have signed a contract over several undeveloped oil and gas fields in North-West Offshore Abu Dhabi including the Ghasha and Hail areas.

An agreement was reached for conducting a four-year seismic drilling and engineering work program for exploration appraisal and potential field developments. OMV and Occidental will also contribute with seconded personnel and technical expertise for the evaluation activities. The cooperation aims to firm up the volume potential of the undeveloped North-West Offshore fields to form the basis for the future development of the North-West Offshore area.

With this project OMV is intensifying its strategic partnership with Adnoc alongside its existing participation in the appraisal of the sour gas Shuwaihat field and its East Abu Dhabi exploration activities. According to an estimate by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Ghasha which is located just north of Ruwais held 1.1 billion barrels of recoverable oil in addition to the gas.

With a 24.9 per cent interest Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company of IPIC is the second biggest shareholder. The close cooperation with the IPIC OMV's second largest shareholder supports OMV's endeavors in the region. In June 2012 OMV secured its first upstream position in the UAE through negotiated access. Together with the partners Adnoc and Wintershall the operator the sour gas and condensate field Shuwaihat will be appraised.

A year later in 2013 OMV signed an upstream exploration agreement with Adnoc to jointly explore the onshore region in East Abu Dhabi. Together the projects should provide a shorter and longer term contribution to Abu Dhabi's plan to increase production and reserves. This would help to cover the increasing energy demand of the UAE and the country's long-term export capability. In early 2015 Occidental and Adnoc announced a technical evaluation agreement for the development of Hail and Ghasha oilfields. The agreement covers 3-D seismic surveys drilling appraisal wells and conducting engineering studies necessary for the fields' development.

OMV CEO Rainer Seele said: "We are pleased to expand our cooperation with Adnoc together with Occidental through the appraisal of a number of undeveloped fields which are of strategic importance to Adnoc. This cooperation will further strengthen our already excellent partnership with Adnoc."

In upstream OMV focuses on three core regions - Romania Austria North Sea as well as Middle East and Africa - and selected development areas. Its 2015 daily production stood at approximately 303000 barrel of oil equivalent per day. In downstream OMV has an annual refining capacity of 17.8 million tonnes and approximately 3800 filling stations in 11 countries as of the end of 2015. OMV operates a gas pipeline network in Austria and gas storage facilities in Austria and Germany. In 2015 gas sales volumes amounted to 110 TWh.

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