* Austrian firm seeks to sell 30 pct stake in project
* Stake estimated to fetch up to $500 million
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Austrian oil and gas company OMV has put up for sale a 30 percent stake in the Rosebankoil and gas project in the British North Sea, banking sourcessaid, as it trims its budget in the face of lower oil prices.
The sale process of the asset stake located west of Shetlandis being run by Barclays and could fetch as much as$500 million, the sources added.
OMV currently owns a 50 percent stake in Rosebank, one ofthe company's major exploration projects which is operated byU.S. oil major Chevron.
Chevron holds a 40 percent share of the project whileDenmark's Dong Energy holds the remaining 10 percent.
OMV and Chevron declined to comment. Barclays did notrespond to requests for comment.
The halving of oil prices over the past year has forced oiland gas companies to slash spending and scrap and delay around$200 billion in deepwater oil projects and huge gas plants sofar this year.
OMV in 2013 increased its stake in Rosebank to 50 percent aspart of its $2.65 billion acquisition of Statoil assetsaimed at increasing its focus on exploration and production andto make up for output losses in volatile countries such as Libyaor Yemen.
The Austrian company had put Rosebank's estimated peakproduction at 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and hadpreviously estimated the costs of developing Rosebank to reach$10 billion. [ID: nL6N0QI2WI]
OMV's exploration chief said in May that the process toreduce OMV's stake in Rosebank had started.
OMV's exploration chief Jaap Huijskes has said OMV wants toreduce its stake in Rosebank by around 10-20 percent.
Chevron is currently reviewing the economics and engineeringof the project, whose final investment decision (FID) is notexpected to be decided before the end of 2015, according toanalysts.
Chevron has said in the past it was "premature to make anystatement on FID date for the project."
(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla in Vienna; Editing byVeronica Brown and William Hardy)
Barclays (BARC)
