Reuters reported that Austrian oil and gas group OMV could be heading for a full production shutdown in Libya as it pulled staff out of the turmoil hit country and its shares tumbled nearly 8%.

The flagship of OMV's growing North Africa business, Libya provided OMV with 33,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2010 around a tenth of the group's total output.

Mr Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer CEO ofOMV said that we are evaluating the situation. We cannot say at the moment how production is developing exactly. It is going down sharply. We do not rule out that it could come to a complete stop for a period of time. OMV would not be able to make up for the shortfall with production elsewhere. He said that he had no indications to support reports that Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi could cut off the flow of oil and gas.

One Vienna based trader said that we calculate that if this really happens it would have a negative impact of EUR 1.61 per share.

Mr Jaap Huijskes chief of exploration and production said that “I think it is too early to speculate where Libya is going to go. Right now our priority is to get our people out. We are still in the process of getting the very last out of our people out. Production is looking at significant decreases or a full stop. I think what happens after that remains to be seen.”

(Sourced from Reuters)