Austrian energy company OMV sees oil production increase by 1 percent

VIENNA, April 21 (UPI) -- Austrian energy company OMV said its first quarter output was up 1 percent, largely on Norwegian operations, and that its exploration expenses were lower than in 2015.

The company said in a trading statement that production was up 1 percent when compared with fourth quarter 2015.

"The increase was mainly driven by higher production contribution from Norway, as the Edvard Grieg field was on stream for the whole quarter, while only for one month in fourth quarter 2015," the company said in its statement.

Commercial production at Edvard Grieg started in November. The field was discovered in 2007 and holds an estimated 187 million barrels of oil equivalents. Most of the reserves in the field located in Norwegian waters are in the form of oil.

The Norwegian National Petroleum Directorate revised its data for the field last year. Preliminary calculations from an exploration well led to a potential increase of between 6.2 million and 50 million barrels of recoverable oil in the field. Peak production is anticipated at 90,000 barrels of oil and 53 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The production gains come as other oil producers are either mulling production cuts or seeing output decline, as is the case in the United States. Spending on exploration and production has been on the decline because of pressure from lower oil prices and OMV said its spending on exploration was down because of a decline in sector activity.

Nevertheless, the company said it was still under pressure from the market downturn.