OMV doubles profits and beats forecasts

Firm part-owned by Mubadala says production cost per barrel fell by a fifth

The Austrian energy group OMV, in which AbuDhabi's Ipic has a stake, has had an excellent second quarter. Heinz-Peter Bader / Reuters

The Austrian oil and gas group OMV, in which Mubadala Investment Company has a 25 per cent stake, doubled its second-quarter adjusted operating profit to €662 million (Dh2.84 billion), slightly above expectations, with its production cost per barrel falling by a fifth, it said on Thursday.

The adjusted operating contribution from its upstream, or exploration and production, business rose by a factor of almost 100 to €259 million compared with last year and costs per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) fell to US$8.7.

OMV lowered its forecast for Brent crude prices this year to $52 per barrel from $55. At the same time it expects its 2017 refining margin, a buffer when the upstream segment weakens, to rise from last year's level.

The chief executive Rainer Seele is pursuing his target of having the "cheapest production" by buying into Russia, where production costs are as low as $2/boe, and is shedding assets in expensive North Sea locations and non-core countries like Turkey.

_______________

Read more:

Adnoc and OMV sign agreement

OMV to sell its Turkish fuel products unit to Vitol

Mubadala Investment Company set for next step on integration path

_______________

OMV is yet to say how the latest round of US sanctions on Russia, which the European Union has criticised, will affect its business in the country. "The future of the company depends on the relationship between the EU and Russia," said Tamas Pletser, an analyst at Erste.

OMV's sale of its Turkish petrol station business Petrol Ofisi resulted in a €1.2bn hit on its net income, due to the lira weakening against the euro since OMV bought into Turkey in 2010.

This helped weigh on OMV's shares, which were down as much as 5.6 per cent in early trade having risen earlier this week to a near three-month high.

"The foreign exchange writedown came as a bit of a surprise. It's an accounting issue but it wasn't clear why they hadn't made this more clear before. Otherwise they're good, they do what they can do in this environment," Mr Pletser said.

OMV's results were also helped by increased sales volumes in Libya, another low-cost country where OMV is increasing production, and Norway.

Overall, OMV raised its output guidance for this year to 330,000 boe per day from 320,000.

The average estimate in a Reuters poll of analysts for clean current cost of supplies earnings before interest and tax, which excludes special items and inventory gains or losses, was €644 million euros.