OMV Petrom reports net profit up 6 pct, H1 2018

OMV Petrom Group recorded in H1 this year a net profit worth 1.28 billion lei,up 6 percent as compared to the similar period of 2017, namely 1.21 billion lei, according to the financial results released on Thursday by the company. 

The earnings per share amounted to 0.0227 lei, up 6 percent in H1 2018. 

In Q2, the company had a profit down 27 percent, to 434 million lei, as compared to 592 million in Q2 2017. 

The result from exploitation of OMV Petrom increased by 13 percent in the first six months, to 1.781 billion lei, whereas the profit from the CCA exploitation, except for the special elements stood at 1.694 billion lei, stable as compared to last year's similar interval, the Upstream segment having the highest contribution. 

The value of consolidated sales went up 6 percent as compared to Q1 2017, to 9.851 billion lei, due to increased prices in crude oil and natural gas as well as to the high volumes of electricity sold, elements that counterbalanced the small volumes of oil and natural gas products sold, and the lower selling prices of electricity. Downstream Oil sales accounted for 75 percent of the total sales, and Downstream Gas sales for 22 percent. 

In the first six months of the year, the company achieved investments worth 2.102 billion lei, up 130 percent as compared to last year's first semester. The number of OMV Petrom employees is by 6 percent lower, namely 13,421 people end-June 2018. 

The Austrian OMV Group is the major shareholder of Petrom with 51.01 percent and the Energy Ministry holds 20.64 percent of the shares, and Fondul Proprietatea 20.11 percent. 

Petrom is the biggest Romanian oil and gas company, with activities in the Upstream (Exploitation and Production), Downstream Oil (Refinement and Marketing), Downstream Gas (Gas and Energy) sectors.