OMV Interim Earnings Beat Forecasts

Ahead of 1Q2017 results on May 11, Austria’s OMV late April 27 released unaudited earnings which it describes as “significantly above the analysts’ consensus.”

Current cost of supply (CCS) operating result in 1Q was €800mn, three times higher than its 1Q2016 result of €262 mn, it said, including earnings of €320mn from upstream (1Q2016: a loss of €96mn) and €80mn from downstream gas (triple its 1Q2016 figure of €23mn).

CCS net income in 1Q was €500mn, almost three times higher than its 1Q2016 profit of €173mn, boosted by higher upstream oil and gas prices and sales volumes.

Earlier on April 27, OMV and Austria's leading power producer Verbund agreed to cooperate in investing in electric and hydrogen refuelling points for vehicles in Austria, in producing hydrogen through electrolysis with the use of hydro- and wind-generated electricity, and in looking at ways in which use of such stored hydrogen could be used as a balancing tool to manage the country's power grid. Verbund is a major hydro-power generator.

OMV ex-CEO Gerhard Roiss was appointed Verbund's new chairman earlier this month. 

Mark Smedley