OMV next in line to tap U.A.E. offshore

April 6 (UPI) -- Austrian energy company OMV said it became the latest in a growing list of foreign companies wading into oil fields off the coast of Abu Dhabi.

The Austrian company said it acquired a 20 percent working interest in the offshore Satah al-Razboot complex, which includes satellite fields Bin Nasher and al-Bateel, and Umm Lulu. The deal with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. included infrastructure associated with the fields for a combined price of $1.5 billion.

ADNOC had no comment on the deal. In an outline of its ambitions, the company said it can produce as much as 1.4 million barrels of oil per day offshore, about 40 percent of its total capacity.

ADNOC so far this year has signed agreements with Asian energy companies, Italian major Eni and French supermajor Total.

The United Arab Emirates is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and party to its multilateral effort to trim a market surplus with production caps. Emirati production in February averaged 2.8 million barrels per day, about 3 percent less than the full-year average for 2017.

OMV, meanwhile, said it expected to produce around 420,000 bpd on average, compared with the 377,000 bpd produced in the fourth quarter. Total spending on exploration and production for OMV, meanwhile, should be around $1.6 billion.