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OMV Petrom Group posted a profit down 25pct in H1 to around 1.04 bln lei
OMV Petrom Group posted 1.036 billion lei in net profit in the first half-year, down 25 percent from 1.387 billion lei in net profit reported over last Jan.-June, show the IFRS consolidated preliminary financial results made public on Wednesday. OMV Petrom sales totalled 8.811 billion lei by this mid-year, marking 18 percent drop from 10.719 billion lei in the first half of 2014.
The Group's operating profit (EBIT) stood at 1.280 billion lei, down 39 percent from 2.098 billion lei over Jan.-June 2014.
The profit per share in this H1 amounted to 0.0184 lei, by 25 percent less than in the same period a year ago, when it stood at 0.0245 lei.
Investments totalled 2.069 billion lei, recording 29 percent shrinkage from 2.906 billion lei in the last H1.
"In the first six months, we focused on ensuring long-lasting and profitable business in a market climate with low crude prices that could last longer. We implemented operating cost-cutting measures and measures aimed to boost the efficiency of our operations, with work safety remaining our main priority, however. In order to maintain the cash flow and a solid balance sheet, we set the priorities for our investments depending on the potential to generate long-term value, so that we obtained a drop in the Group's capital expenditure of approximately 30 percent in accordance with expectations", OMV Petrom Managing Director Mariana Gheorghe said.
She added: "In Upstream, the previous investments kept generating benefits and, as an effect, the Group's hydrocarbon production slightly increased thanks to the higher contribution of capital repair and the (re)development of the deposits. In 2015 we have so far finalised the drilling at four wells in the deep Black Sea waters in partnership with ExxonMobil and the exploration programme goes on. The smaller Upstream result was partially countered by the very good performance of Downstream Oil, backed by the increased refining margins and dropped crude-related costs, which highlights the advantages of our integrated business model. Moreover, we increased the volume of sales from marketing, benefiting from the higher demand for oil products."
OMV Petrom top executive stressed that as regards "Downstream Gas, the volume of the gas sales went up 10 percent, in spite of the deteriorated market climate. For the second half of the year, the Romanian authorities have announced public consultations regarding the tax and regulatory climate. As we have underlined so far, we aim to obtain a stable, predictable framework that is conducive to investments as a key condition for future investments".
OMV Petrom made 691 million lei in net profit in Q2 of 2015, double the one reported in Q1 at 345 million lei; it marked 122 percent surge as compared to the net profit posted in Q2 of 2014 (312 million lei).
This Q2 operating profit totalled 786 million lei (up from 494 million lei in Q1 of this year), while sales amounted to 4.540 billion lei, on a slight rise from the first three months of 2015 (4.271 billion lei) and down 16 percent as compared to 5.423 billion lei worth of last Q2 sales.