OMV eyes Serbia, Bulgaria for investments in renewables

OMV intends to expand its renewables business in Southeast Europe. The company said Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary have great wind and solar power potential.

Austrian oil, gas and chemicals group OMV has been undergoing a major transformation toward clean technologies. As it presented the results from the first half of the year, Chief Executive Officer Alfred Stern pointed out that the company wants to expand its renewables investments in Southeast Europe, adding that Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary have great wind and solar power potential.

It already has a substantial presence in the electricity market in Romania, where its OMV Petrom subsidiary operates an 860 MW gas-fired power plant. The company already said in June that it is looking for opportunities in the renewables segment in the region.

Stern declared that OMV is no longer dependent on natural gas from Russia.

Growing green energy portfolio in Romania

OMV Petrom is developing plans, with coal power plant operator Complexul Energetic Oltenia (CE Oltenia), for four solar power projects with a combined capacity of 450 MW. Additionally, it has bought photovoltaic projects of an overall 710 MW in the country.

The Romanian subsidiary holds a 50% stake in the firm Electrocentrale Borzești, which has a 1 GW renewables project pipeline of 950 MW from wind and 50 MW from solar. OMV Petrom also expanded its partnership with Renovatio through the acquisition of a 50% stake in renewable energy projects amounting to 130 MW.

The company is investing in biofuels and green hydrogen in Romania as well as in a facility for renewable diesel components in its Schwechat refinery in Austria.

Bets on CCS, geothermal energy

The group obtained a second license in Norway in June for carbon capture and storage (CCS), in a project in which it holds 30%. The Iroko site in the Norwegian North Sea has a capacity of 215 million tons of carbon dioxide, OMV said and added that it would be able to take in 7.5 million tons per year.

Its low carbon business targets reaching 4 TWh of geothermal energy, 3 TWh to 4 TWh of renewable electricity and three million tons of CCS capacity per year by 2030. OMV vowed to invest EUR 5 billion in the division by the end of the decade.