Gulf News reported that Austrian energy group OMV's output from Libya has reached half the level it was before the civil war halted production.

Mr Gerhard Roiss CEO of OMV said that "At the moment we are at 50% of the pre war level or at around 17,000 barrels per day.

OMV had said that Libyan output which accounted for a tenth of OMV's production in 2010 had regained around 30% of pre war levels.

Output in Yemen remains shut given the damage to pipelines there. The political situation there remains very difficult. Yemen provided 6,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2010.

Mr Roiss provided no new details about the status of the Nabucco pipeline project that aims to bring Caspian gas to Europe saying its future was largely out of OMV's hands given the geopolitical factors at play. Nabucco is not a central element of our strategy. The important thing was getting gas from the Caspian region to customers in OMV's markets rather than which pipeline got used for this.

He said that we are very interested in Nabucco. Any pipeline that ends in Baumgarten is important for our country for Europe.

Nabucco's shareholders are OMV, Germany's RWE, Hungary's MOL, Turkey's Botas, BEH of Bulgaria and Romania's Transgaz. Nabucco and a Russian-designed pipeline South Stream as well as other projects, are all vying for Azeri gas from the Shah Deniz field to boost fuel supplies to southern Eur ope.

The pipeline, which the European Commission has estimated will cost around EUR 10 billion is set to transport the first supplies in 2017 or 2018. The Commission has said it was open to talks on combining projects.

Mr Roiss said that he was unaware of any plans for Austria to reduce its 31.5% stake in OMV as a way to cut state debt. I am not in talks with anyone. I also have no direct signals, calls or meetings scheduled on this subject. He saw state holding company OeIAG's participation in OMV's capital increase as a sign it was a long term investor.

(Sourced from Gulf New)