OMV Aktiengesellschaft, the leading energy group in the European growth belt, has announced the discovery and successful testing of oil in offshore Sirte Basin, 40 km southwest of Benghazi in Libya.

The A1-NC202 exploration well in Block NC202 reached a total depth of 4,820 metres and tested a natural flow rate of up to 1,264 bbl/d from the Eocene Dernah Formation.

This is OMV’s first oil discovery in offshore Libya, said a top company official. 'I am very pleased with this new discovery – OMV’s first offshore discovery in Libya,' an elated Kurt Wagner, OMV general manager in Libya, said.

The block NC202 forms part of a package of exploration blocks including the neighbouring offshore block NC201, NC199 (Cyrenaica), NC200 (Murzuq Basin), NC203 and NC204 (Kufra Basin) which were awarded to Repsol and OMV in June 2003.

OMV holds a 14 per cent interest in this package. The other partners are the National Oil Corporation of Libya (65 per cent) and Repsol which acts as operator and holds the remaining 21 per cent.

The European energy giant holds a balanced international E&P portfolio in 19 countries structured around six core regions, namely CEE, North Africa, Northwestern Europe, the Middle East, Australia/New Zealand and Russia/Caspian Region.

The group's daily production volume is 317,000 boe/d, and the company's proven reserves at the end of 2008 were 1.21 billion boe.

OMV took a major step in Libya in 1985, when it acquired 25 per cent of Occidental Petroleum’s producing assets. Since then OMV has considerably expanded its operations in the country-TradeArabia News Service