Washington D.C.-based private equity firm Carlyle Group is reportedly mulling over a majority stake purchase of OMV’s upstream oil and gas activities, anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter tell Bloomberg News.

The Austrian petrochemical group has previously aired interest in having reduced oil and gas extraction by a fifth come 2030 – and later completely exit that side of the oil industry by 2050.

According the Bloomberg’s sources, Carlyle is keen on buying most of OMV’s assets within oil and natural gas production, but the private markets investor is also expected to avoid the Vienna-headquartered group’s projects located both at home and in Russia, as well as a stake in listed Romanian subsidiary OMV Petrom, the US media reports.

OMV, whose Tuesday afternoon share price is up by 2.6% to EUR 49.90 in Vienna trading, operates upstream assets in Libya, Iraqi Kurdistan, Malaysia, Norway and the United Arab Emirates.

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