Austria-based OMV has divested its 50 per cent stake in the offshore Ashtart oil field, located in the Gulf of Gabes in Tunisia, and another 50 per cent stake in the Tunisian oil and gas company Serept to the Anglo-French petroleum company Perenco
With the move, Perenco will be jointly holding its stakes with the Tunisian national oil company, ETAP, who owns the remaining 50 per cent stake in Serept and Ashtart.
OMV’s decision of divestment of Ashtart and Serept comes in line with the company’s strategy to optimise its portfolio.
The Ashtart oil field was discovered in 1971 and the production was started in 1974. Operated by Serept, the oil field is undergoing a revamp that was initiated in 2008, maintaining a production level of 5000 bpd.
Lotfi Kahouach, CEO of Serept, said that the company aims to commence a new turning point in partnership with Perenco, which is aiming to providing strengths to meet the challenges of the present and the near future.
With a global workforce of 22,500 employees in 2016, OMV is one of the largest listed industrial companies in Austria, which is active in the upstream and downstream businesses. The annual downstream refining capacity of the company is around 17.8mn tonnes. In June 2017, OMV operated more than 2,000 filling stations across 10 countries.
In July 2017, OMV completely divested its stakes from OMV Petrol Ofisi to the VIP Turkey Enerji. The company is currently in a way to develop Nawara project located within the Jenein Sud exploration area. The company hopes multiple discoveries in the Nawara concession.
Headquartered in London and Paris, Perenco involves in exploration and production activities in 16 countries around the globe including Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Belize, Tunisia, Egypt,Turkey, Iraq, Vietnam and etc.
