Higher demand and favorable crude price grow Romania's OMV Petrom six-month sales, profit

Oil and gas company OMV Petrom grew its sales by 23 percent in the first half of this year, compared to the same period of last year, reaching EUR 2.4 billion (the equivalent of RON 10.27 billion), the company has announced. OMV Petrom's oil and gas sales grew by 20 percent, to EUR 1 billion (the equivalent of RON 4.4 billion), in the second quarter of this year, compared to the second quarter of 2010. The growth was attributed to the favorable price of crude oil and higher fuel and gas demand. The company grew its profit (EBIT - earnings before interest and tax) during the first six months of the year, to EUR 574 million (the equivalent of RON 2.4 billion), up 54 percent on the first six months of 2010. The second quarter of the year brought an 86 percent growth in its profit (EBIT), which reached EUR 306 million (the equivalent of RON 1.266 billion), higher than the RON 1.19 billion posted in the first quarter of the year. "The second quarter shows good operational performance. On the back of the favorable crude price environment we benefited from increased production levels and resurgent fuel and gas demand from both the industry and commercial sectors, in particular in Romania. […] Our exploration activity also recorded good progress recently, with the successful discovery of a potentially significant gas discovery (Totea) and the decision to enter the next exploration phase in the deepwater Black Sea, jointly with ExxonMobil. The effects of efficiency measures implemented brought further benefits to our underlying performance. The high crude price environment burdened refining and marketing margins due to higher crude costs and still weak retail demand,” said Mariana Gheorghe, CEO of OMV Petrom SA. The company expects the Romanian market to gradually continue its recovery and its exploration and production will be to mitigate natural decline and the progress of exploration initiatives. On the research and marketing side, OMV Petrom will continue operational optimization and the Petrobrazi modernization. In 2010, the Group’s turnover was EUR 4.4 billion, while its EBIT was of EUR 709 million. OMV, one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies holds a 51.01 percent stake in Petrom. The Romanian state has attempted to sell a 9.84 percent stake in OMV Petrom through a secondary public offering on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, but as the offer failed to attract the needed amount of investors, it was postponed to an indefinite date. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Corina Saceanu/romania-insider.com)