A board supervisor at Austrian energy company OMV said he was stepping down now that the foundations are in place for future momentum.

OMV is among those companies facing pressure from a weak energy market. Last month the company reported an operating loss of around $2.1 billion last year, against profits of around $1 billion for 2014. Rainer Seele, the company's chief executive officer, said around 90 percent of the spending this year would focus on keeping production levels steady during the downturn.

Peter Oswald, the supervisory board chairman at OMV, said with the foundations set for the future, it was time for him to step aside.

OMV said its new corporate strategy put profitability ahead of quantitative growth. With momentum set, Oswald said he would return his focus to his duties at packaging and paper company Mondi Europe & International.

"I don't want to let the quality of my work slip at any company and that's why it is in the interests of both OMV and Mondi that I step down as chairman of the OMV supervisory board," he said.

Short term, OMV said the main development regions are Iran, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. The company shares pipeline interests with Russian natural gas company Gazprom and four years ago agreed to drill as many as three appraisal wells in the Shuwaihat field in western Abu Dhabi.

In Iran, the company said it was evaluating the opportunities in at least two separate field development projects.

In February Seele said the new strategy for 2016 makes the company fit for a more volatile market.