OMV sees Brent oil at $52 for the year

OMV reported an operating net profit in the third quarter of $933 million, up 52 percent from the same period last year. The company said gains were supported by a 14 percent quarterly gain in Brent crude oil prices, which it said came largely from commitment to an agreement led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to balance an oversupplied market with managed production declines.

The company said its own realized crude oil price increased 9 percent during the period, lower than quarterly market gain because of a varied oil portfolio. The price for Brent, OMV said, should average $52 per barrel for the year.

Brent crude was trading nearly $64 per barrel early Thursday. U.S. supermajor ConocoPhillips said earlier this week it was pegging its three-year spending plan on West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for oil, at around $50 per barrel. Brent had a $6.70 per barrel premium over WTI in early trading.

For production, costs for OMV declined by 13 percent during the quarter to $8.80 per barrel of oil equivalent, while output increased 13 percent to 341,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

For natural gas, the company said its primary market in Europe was still oversupplied, though gas prices were following crude oil prices higher for the year.

OMV has a role in Russian plans to twin its Nord Stream natural gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea, though U.S. sanctions and European concerns about Russia's grip on the energy sector pose challenges to implementation.

Elsewhere, the company said its operations in OPEC-member Libya were moving on the positive side of production. Its share of Libyan operations should yield 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day during the second half of the year.

Libya is exempt from the OPEC production agreement so it can steer oil revenue toward national security efforts.