Austria's OMV announces major Sudan discovery

Austrian oil and gas group OMV said yesterday it had discovered an "important" oil reserve in south-central Sudan.

"OMV Exploration has made a series of impressive discoveries in the last few months, but Thar Jath has the potential to be the biggest discovery by far", the company said. OMV said its wholly-owned subsidiary OMV (Sudan) Exploration GmbH had made the find as part of a consortium led by Swedish Lundin subsidiary Lundin Sudan Ltd.

The Thar Jath 1 drilling exploration was the first one carried out by this consortium in block 5A in Sudan, which has the potential to produce 4,620 barrels of crude oil per day. The find lies in an area which is already being exploited, with blocks one, two and four combined already producing more than 200,000 barrels a day.

OMV said it was planning further exploration in the "Jarayan-1" field, 12 kilometres to the south-east of the current field. Operator Lundin has a 40.4 per cent stake in the block, OMV has 26.1 per cent and partners Malaysia's Petronas and local Sudapet have 28.5 per cent and five per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, OMV reported record annual profit, helped by soaring world oil prices, and announced an increase of almost 80 per cent in its dividend. OMV's shares rose following the result, which slightly exceeded analysts' expectations. Operating profit jumped 72 per cent to 491 million euros ($456.7 million) in 2000 on a 44 per cent increase in sales to 7.45 billion.

Excluding one-off factors - such as restructuring, the raising of the Austrian early retirement age and compensation for Nazi slave labour - operating profit leaped by 170 per cent to 667 million euros.

"The year 2000 not only brought OMV the best result since the company was founded, it also represented a major milestone towards strengthening our competitive position," Chief Executive Richard Schenz said in a statement.

He reaffirmed OMV's goal of consolidating its position as the leading central European oil and gas group through alliances with similar companies. OMV said its return on equity jumped to 18 per cent from 12 per cent in 1999. It plans to pay a dividend of 4.3 euros, which includes a bonus of 1.3 euros, compared with a payout of 2.4 euros in 1999.