OMV closes sale of Norwegian oil find as focus shifts to gas
Austria's OMV has closed the sale of its 25% interest in the Wisting oil discovery in the Norwegian Barents Sea to Sweden's Lundin Energy for $320mn, as part of a shift in its focus to natural gas, the companies announced on December 17.
The deal, announced in late October, could also see OMV receive up to $20mn in contingency payments based on how much Wisting will cost to develop. It has been backdated to January 1 2021.
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"The sale of these licenses is in line with OMV’s focus on low-carbon projects and on increasing the share of natural gas versus oil in the future product portfolio," the Austrian group said.
Wiisting holds 500mn barrels of oil equivalent of mostly oil and some gas. Lundin has expanded its stake in the project to 35%. The field's operator Equinor has a further 35%, while other partners Petoro and Idemitsu have shares of 20% and 10% respectively.