Austrian energy company OMV will expand further, focus on more value-added refined products and grow its marketing beyond Europe, its CEO said on Wednesday. Chief Executive Rainer Seele was sketching broad plans for the company ahead of a strategy update in March.
"OMV will become even bigger and even more international," said Seele, who has boosted OMV's output by a third to around 400,000 barrels a day by expanding into Russia. OMV would not only have international production operations but also diversify where it sells its products, Seele told the business journalists' club in Vienna.
"We should burn our oil less and refine it more... In any case we will see that we will not grow our business prioritising Europe as we have done in the past." OMV, whose production is currently made up of oil and gas in equal measure, will increase its gas share in the future, Seele said, adding he believed there was growth potential for gas demand in Europe.
When asked about OMV's dependence on fossil fuels, Seele said "I don't need a survival strategy but I will comfortably go into the next decades and will do so also with oil and gas." Oil majors including BP, Royal Dutch Shell and France's Total have invested in renewable energy as they prepare for a shift away from fossil fuels in the fight against climate change.
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