(SeeNews) - Romania's top oil and gas group, OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP], said on Wednesday its net profit rose by 44% year-on-year to 2.66 billion lei ($650 million/571 million euro) in the first nine months of 2018.
The strong increase came on the back of improved commodity prices and higher power demand, OMV Petrom said in its third-quarter unaudited consolidated financial statement.
Sales rose 13% to 16.1 billion lei in the nine months through September, spurred by higher oil and natural gas prices, increased petroleum product sales volumes, partially offset by lower sales volumes of natural gas and electricity. The downstream segment contributed 81% of total sales, downstream gas accounted for 17% and upstream for 2%.
OMV expects 2018 CAPEX,
including capitalized exploration and appraisal, to be around 3.7
billion lei, of which around 75% will be
in Upstream, it said in the statement.
Capital expenditures rose to 3.1 billion lei in the first nine months of 2018 from 1.72 billion lei in the year-ago period.
In
the upstream segment, OMV Petrom posted a 4.26 billion lei operating
result, compared to a 3.15 billion lei result in the first nine months
of 2017, mainly driven by higher oil and gas prices,
which compensated for the lower oil and gas volumes and higher royalties.
Total hydrocarbon production shrank 5% to 43.91 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in the nine months through September, due to lower output in both Romania and Kazakhstan.
Exploration expenditures surged to 313 million lei in the first nine months of 2018 from 117 million lei in the year-ago period.
In the downstream segment, the group's operating result decreased 11% on the year to 1.747 billion lei in the January-September period of 2018, due to the lower result of the Downstream Gas segment.
Total sales of refined petroleum products decreased 5% year-on-year to 3.64 million tonnes in the nine months through September. Gas sales volumes fell by an annual 9% to 34.44 TWh while net electricity output rose 42% at 2.35 TWh.
In the third quarter alone, OMV Petrom's net profit surged almost 80% year on year to 1.38 billion lei, while sales rose 24% on the year to 6.26 billion lei.
OMV Petrom posted a 2.489 billion lei net profit in 2017, sharply up from 1.038 billion lei profit in the previous year.
Austria's OMV Group owns a 51.01% stake in OMV Petrom. The Romanian state, via the energy ministry owns 20.64% and 28.35% is in free float on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
Shares of blue chip OMV Petrom traded 2.63% higher at 0.39 lei as at 1034 CET on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
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