Officials of OMV and Gazprom signing the agreement. Credit: © OMV.

Austrian integrated oil and gas firm OMV has entered an agreement for the potential acquisition of a 24.98% interest in the Achimov IV and V phase development in the Urengoy gas and condensate field in the northern West Siberia Basin from Gazprom.

The parties will negotiate the price for the transaction.

The agreement for the proposed acquisition has replaced the previous deal under which OMV agreed to acquire interests in the gas assets in exchange for some of its assets to be offered to Gazprom.

In 2016, OMV agreed to swap 38.5% of its Norwegian assets for the aforementioned stake in the Achimov IV and V phase development. The transaction was initially anticipated to be closed by the end of this year.

However, the Norwegian Government was not happy with the swap deal as it was not keen to give access to its continental shelf to the Russian company, Reuters reported in May this year.

“The execution and implementation of the potential transaction is, amongst others, subject to agreement with Gazprom.”

At that time, Norway Energy Minister Terje Soeviknes told the news agency: “We have said we are not happy for this deal because we want to have diversified supplies for gas to Europe.

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“That is important for the Europeans, to know that they have Norway as a stable producer. With Gazprom at the shelf, some people might question that.”

In a statement, OMV said: “The execution and implementation of the potential transaction is, amongst others, subject to agreement with Gazprom on the final transaction documents and regulatory and corporate approvals at a later stage.”

The company expects to finalise the transaction at the start of next year.

Gazprom and OMV are partners in a consortium that is engaged in building the €9.5bn Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is set to double the volume of gas transported from Russia across the Baltic Sea to Europe.

The Austrian firm has interests in several production licences on the Norwegian continental shelf, including in the Gullfaks, Gudrun and Edvard Grieg, and the Arctic Aaasta Hansteen gas fields.