DUBAI, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The government-controlled Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said that it signed an agreement awarding Austria's energy giant OMV a 20 percent share in the SARB and Umm Lulu offshore concession on Sunday.
The signing was witnessed by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Sebastian Kurz, Chancellor of Austria.
OMV is an Austrian integrated oil and gas company partly owned (24.9 percent) by a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Company.
The deal strengthens ADNOC's strategy to maximize returns from its resources, expand its downstream business, and retain value for the UAE, said ADNOC.
OMV paid a participation fee of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to enter the concession, which also takes account of previous investments made by ADNOC in the SARB field.
ADNOC maintains a majority of 60 percent stake, according to the agreement, which has a term of 40 years, effective from March 9, 2018.
ADNOC's Group Chief Executive Officer Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said that OMV's strong record in deploying advanced technologies to cost-effectively increase recovery rates from mature fields will "enable ADNOC to continue to be a reliable supplier of oil for decades to come."
Rainer Seele, chief executive officer of OMV, said that "the offshore concession award is an important milestone in OMV's delivery on its 2025 strategy, as we expand our footprint in one of the world's leading oil and gas hubs."
Abu Dhabi is the capital and biggest emirate of the UAE, harbouring 90 percent of Emirati oil and seven percent of the world's known oil reserves.
