The hydrocarbon production of Romania's top oil and gas group, OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP], fell 2.2% on the year to 180,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in the second quarter of 2014, its majority owner, Austria’s OMV, said on Wednesday.
On a quarterly basis, Petrom's output declined 1.1% in the three months through June, OMV said in its quarterly trading statement.
Hydrocarbon output rose on the quarter in Romania, but fell in Kazahstan. Production costs increased compared to the first quarter, following higher personnel costs in Romania and the production start-up of Gudrun.
The major shutdown of the Petrobrazi refinery in Romania, necessary to complete the final stage of the investment programme, led to higher levels of stored own crude, resulting in unrealized profits of some 40 million euro ($53.9 million), which are eliminated in the consolidation line, the statement added.
OMV Petrom's gas sales volume fell by 16.6% on the quarter to 11.24 terawatt-hours (TWh) in the April-June period. Compared with the year-ago period, gas sales volume shrank by 2.3%.
The performance of the OMV group's power business was burdened by a negative average spark spread in Romania mainly driven by the higher gas price.
"We expect the special items and the shutdown of the refinery would cut a significant portion of the 2Q profit, which could stand almost 50% lower yoy. So overall, we rate the news as negative," Raiffeisen Capital & Investment said in a note to investors.
Blue-chip OMV Petrom was trading 0.42% up at 0.4820 lei ($0.1464/0.1087 euro) by 0849 CET on the Bucharest bourse.
Source: SeeNews