Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG expects to grow production volume in 2009, mainly through new fields in Kazakhstan and New Zealand, its chief executive said Friday.
"We firmly expect that our 2009 production will increase against 2008," Chief Executive Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer said, citing the addition of production from newly started Maari gas field in New Zealand, and the expected start of production in Kazakhstan in the second half of 2009.
Further production stimulus will come from higher production in homeland Austria. Extra gas production capacity at its Romanian unit, Petrom, might go on stream this year, Ruttenstorfer said, but declined to quantify the expected rise in production.
In the first quarter of 2009, OMV's production declined 4% against the previous first quarter, to 308,000 barrels of oil equivalent, mainly due to OPEC production quotas implemented in Libya.
Ruttenstorfer, speaking at the first-quarter results conference Friday, also said he doesn't exclude that OMV might buy production assets if the right opportunities arise.
"In this time of crisis, new opportunities may emerge," Ruttenstorfer said. "Within our core regions, we are looking at all projects that become available," he said.