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Case Study

OMV and the oil industry, 2005

34 pages

March 2007

Reference: IMD-3-1750

OMV, Austria’s national oil and gas champion, had set as its vision in 2005 to dominate the Central and Eastern European oil and gas market and become the best vertically integrated mid-tier oil and gas player by 2010. However, many of its competitors: MOL, PKN, Lukoil, ENI to name a few, had similar visions. The problem facing the company was then how to reach its vision profitably. The case provides a background overview of the global oil and gas industry fro exploration to retail and then focuses on the Central and Eastern European refining and marketing arena, the focus of the case. It allows the participants to take on the roles of different competitors to OMV, pushing them to seek how they could “beat” the Austrian oil company and how OMV would respond as a result. A video of Chairman and CEO, Mr. Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer can be used with or without the case to reiterate some of the critical implications for the company.

Learning Objective

There are four possible learning objectives for this case. First it can be used to better understand the concepts of industry dynamics and attractiveness for two very different parts of the oil industry value chain: exploration and production and refining and marketing. Second, the case can be used to explore the importance of generic strategies and key success factors for the refining and marketing part of the oil industry value chain. Third, it can be used to better understanding competitor dynamics as various types of oil competitors vie for the Central and Eastern European market. Finally, the case can be used to explore the dynamics and reasons for vertically integrating.

Keywords

Strategy Formulation, Oil

Settings

Central and Eastern Europe
OMV, Materials, Oil and Gas
2005

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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