OMV posts production, but weak financials

OMV was among the shares leading the decline in European trading after reporting an about-face in most of its major financial metrics for the second quarter. The company said profits and income both moved lower from the first quarter, while capital expenditures increased. Clean CCS, a metric the company uses to gauge its performance against its peers, was reported at $775 million, down 17 percent from the first quarter.

The company added, however, that overall performance was stronger because the average realized price for Brent crude oil was up 30 percent from last year at $51.72 per barrel. The company said that, for the year, it expected the price for Brent crude oil to average $52 per barrel, about 5 percent lower than its previous estimate.

Brent was priced at around $53 per barrel early Thursday.

Clean CCS for the first half of the year was roughly three times greater than over the same period last year. Its planned spending for the year, meanwhile, was lowered by 5 percent to $2.1 billion.

The company is among the larger regional producers and expects gains of 3 percent for total output to around 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Production from Norway increased, despite offshore maintenance efforts, and Libya contributed about 24,000 boe per day to OMV's portfolio during the quarter, even with the volatile situation there.

A worker issue during the weekend disrupted operations from Libya's largest oil field, though a spokesperson for OMV told UPI early this week the issue was resolved and production was recovering. Libya holds, by OMV's estimate, around 47 billion barrels of oil.