Q&A with Peter Seifert

Abstract

The theme of the upcoming EAGE/Europec conference is "Opportunities in Mature Areas." Why was this chosen as the main topic? The increasing demand for oil and gas has created the need to expand exploration into remote areas such as deepwater offshore, the Arctic/permafrost, or in deep targets at 5000 to 6000 m depth. The risks and the costs are high for exploration and developments in those remote areas. Therefore, it is of great interest to the oil industry to find and produce additional hydrocarbons from mature areas, especially at the current oil-price scenario. What is your assessment of how quickly the industry is developing and using leading-edge technology that could increase output from mature fields? The development of advanced technology in our industry is of course dependent on oil prices. During periods of high oil prices like today, we clearly see a technology jump forward. This will lead in the short term to increased output from mature fields. How good a job does the oil and gas industry do in getting new technology to market? Are comparisons to industries that introduce technology faster—the medical and computer fields, for instance—fair? We cannot compare the oil industry with the computer industry, and there is no need to anyway. Our industry is ready any time to apply new technology, but it is very careful about checking the related costs vs. the potential results. New technology is brought to the market rather quickly if there is good demand for it. For example, with 4D seismic and multilateral drilling, the whole industry jumped on it. Again, this is much related to oil price levels. What are the main technology needs on the E&P side? The industry should continue to mature the existing technologies for enhanced-oil-recovery methods for old fields. Quick access to additional producible reserves is most interesting to oil companies. For deepwater developments, the issue is getting the costs down for subsea completions; floating production, storage, and offshore loading; and transmission systems. This would open up new opportunities to develop resources economically, which are out of reach today. What is OMV's current oil and gas production, and where is the company most active in E&P? OMV, including Petrom, currently produces 338,000 BOE/D. We are active in E&P in 16 countries on five continents. We have defined five core areas for our E&P activities: the Danube region from Austria to the Black Sea, North Sea/West of Shetlands, north Africa, the Middle East, and Australia/New Zealand. In addition, we have begun to target Russia as a sixth core area. We are trying to acquire assets there. Our main interest in Russia is to acquire an oilfield development project first, and then exploration assets will follow.