Romania's top oil and gas group, OMV Petrom , said on Thursday its
consolidated earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT)fell 24% to 3.45 billion
lei ($1.0 billion/0.78 billion euro) in the the first nine monthsof 2014, while
sales declined by an annual 11%.
The group's sales, excluding petroleum
excise tax, fellto 16.2 billion leithrough September,OMV Petrom said in its
third-quarterfinancial statement.
Clean current cost of supplies (CCS)
EBIT decreased10% to 4.18billion lei through September.
Capital
expenditures (CAPEX) rose to 4.48 billion leiin the first nine months of the
year from 3.49 billion lei a year earlier, influenced by substantially higher
CAPEX in the exploration and production (E&P) and refining and marketing
(R&M) segments.
“In light of the volatile and weaker market
fundamentals we are reviewing our investment plans for 2015 [...] A stable and
predictable investment-friendly fiscal and regulatory environment remains a key
prerequisite for our future CAPEX program," OMV Petrom CEO Mariana Gheorghe said
in thestatement.
In the E&P segment, clean EBIT fell 3.0% on the
year to 4.13billion lei on lower oil prices.Total hydrocarbon production
declined by 2.0% to 49.11 million boe in the nine months through
September.
In the gas and power segment, clean EBIT turned to a negative
81 million lei from 144 million lei a year earlier, reflecting the negative
contribution of both gas and powerbusiness amid adverse market conditions.OMV
Petrom gas sales volumes declined by 15%.
OMV Petrom's net electrical
output dropped 57% in the first nine months of the year, to 0.78 terrawatt
hours.
In the R&M segment, clean CCS EBIT was 35% up,at 424million
lei, on strong contribution from refining.
Commenting on the company's
financial results in a note to investors, Raiffeisen Bank said,"Overall, we
were positively impressed by the better performance of E&P and R&M
though it was not reflected in the bottom line.We will review our estimates to
account for the drop in crude price [...] but we expect some of the weakness to
be compensated by higher refining result."
The bank's analysts decided to
keep their "hold" recommendation for Petrom's stockand will review the target
price of 0.53 lei.
Blue chip OMV Petrom was trading 1.23% up at
0.4277lei at 0906CET on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.