OMV withdrew from the field in the Ilam province along with
Spain's CEPSA in 2008 when Iran encountered the first wave of US-led sanctions.
The company also left the Mehr block in western Iran, where it had struck oil.
In February, Chief Executive, Rainer Seele said OMV was evaluating
the opportunities in at least two separate oilfield development projects in
Iran without naming them.
Seele last year accompanied other European delegates for a trade
visit to Tehran to attend an industry conference.
"You can find very low-cost fields here, and therefore I
think it’s very competitive production that’s coming on stream here in
Iran," Seele told the event.
OMV is pushing to boost its upstream portfolio, with Seele saying
the company would use at least 90% of its investments for exploration and
production through 2020.
OMV has said its future lies in Iran and Russia as the rout in
crude markets makes the company’s high-cost North Sea oilfields less
profitable.
"With our new strategy, we will focus on cash and costs,
pursue a sustainable position in upstream focusing on value over volume
growth," Seele has said. "The main development regions are Russia,
the United Arab Emirates and Iran."
Apart from Mehr and Cheshmeh Khosh projects, OMV had signed
initial contracts for participation in Iran’s LNG plans, including annual sales
of 2.2 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas, and developing phase 12 of
Iran’s giant South Pars gas field, Fars said.
OMV is jostling with many other international companies for
business with Iran after the lifting of sanctions and the Austrian firm has
sought to mollify Iran for a return to the country.
"OMV has never closed the office in Tehran, even in difficult
times," Robert Lechner, a spokesman for OMV, has been cited as saying.
The company and other major businesses were apparently looking to
a visit to Vienna last week by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which was
cancelled due to "security reasons."
Iran said the decision was reached mutually to allow for better
preparation.
Rouhani had been scheduled to meet Austrian President Heinz
Fischer and other Austrian leaders on Wednesday and Thursday in only his second
visit as president to Europe, after he traveled to Rome and Paris in January.