Despite the Ministry of Oil's refusal.. Austrian OMV: We reached an agreement to sell our oil and gas sectors in Shabwa to the Dutch company
English - Thursday 16 February 2023 الساعة 06:26 pm
Mukalla, NewsYemen, exclusive:
The Austrian (OMV) group working in the field of oil and gas explained that the process of selling its sectors, which it manages in Shabwa Governorate, southeast of Yemen, is still ongoing and has not been completely closed until now.
The deal includes the largest asset of the Austrian company in Yemen, which is its share in the Al-Uqla oil field (S2, 3 and 70) in the Shabwa governorate in the southeast of the country on the Arabian Sea, which is under the control of the Yemeni government.
According to several correspondences conducted by the editor of "Newsyemen", the Austrian group confirmed that it is still in the process of selling its branches in Yemen, but it revealed that it had reached an agreement with the Dutch Zenith Energy Group. Noting that the operation of the oil sectors managed by the Austrian company in Shabwa is carried out in accordance with the applicable regulations, as well as in close contact with the Yemeni Ministry of Oil.
She explained that the sale and acquisition of the next company will take place in accordance with the approval of the competent authorities in Yemen and Austria, reaffirming that this process has not been closed yet.
What was revealed in the correspondence with the Austrian group contradicts the recent statements of the Yemeni Ministry of Oil, which refused to complete the deal in favor of the Dutch group.
The Yemeni Ministry of Oil justified its refusal to sell the fact that Dutch Zenith Energy is not internationally known and does not have the financial capacity and technical competence accredited by the Ministry and the Oil Authority and does not meet the standards governing cases of abandoning ownership of the stake owned by the Austrian company OMV.
And in June of 2022, the Vienna-based OMV announced that it was selling its crude oil and natural gas liquids assets in Yemen as it was trying to limit its oil activities, noting that “the planned liquidation is based on OMV’s strategy to reduce the share of Oil in the wallet.
“While the security situation in Yemen continues to pose significant challenges, OMV was able to complete the maintenance campaign in Block S2 and commission two power generation units for the central processing facility in Q4/21,.
In early January 2023, the Yemeni government was surprised by the Dutch company Zenith Energy's announcement of its acquisition of the energy assets of the Austrian company (OMV) in Shabwa, with a sale deal amounting to about $21.6 million.
At the time, the CEO of Zenith, Andrea Cattaneo, published a statement about the company's ability to acquire the assets of the oil sectors belonging to the Austrian company in Shabwa Governorate, southeastern Yemen. However, these statements were rejected and not approved by the Ministry of Oil and Minerals in Yemen.
According to the deal announcement, the new company acquired the share of the main oil field in Al-Uqla, which produces an average of six thousand barrels per day as of January 2022, after it produced about 15 thousand barrels per day before the Houthi war in Yemen.
OMV also sold its stakes in two smaller fields in eastern Yemen, along with an estimated 571 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas.
The Yemeni Ministry of Oil responded quickly to the statement of the CEO of the Dutch company "Zenith", describing it as untrue, stressing that no agreement had been concluded with it on this issue. And that it is still studying the documents submitted by OMV regarding the sale of its assets in the oil sectors in Shabwa Governorate.
The Ministry reaffirmed that no approval or indication was given to accept the Dutch company, holding OMV and Zenith legally responsible for that.
