OMV 3Q Net Profit Soars on Norway Output Increase, Price Rises

OMV AG (OMV.VI) said Thursday that its third-quarter net profit rose year-on-year, driven by higher output in Norway as well as higher oil and gas prices.

Net profit for the period ended Sept. 30 was 439 million euros ($509 million) compared with EUR48 million a year earlier, although sales fell to EUR4.65 billion, well below expectations of EUR5.51 billion outlined in a survey conducted by FactSet. Last year's sales figure was EUR5.25 billion.

OMV's upstream business, entailing exploration and production, swung to an operating result of EUR247 million from a loss of EUR316 million a year earlier. OMV attributed the improvement to a higher contribution from Norway, the restart of production in Libya starting in the fourth quarter of 2016, and higher realized oil and gas prices.

Operating results from OMV's downstream business, which includes refining, marketing and distribution services, rose to EUR517 million from EUR489 million.

The Austrian integrated oil-and-gas company said that its clean current cost of supply operating result--an adjusted operating earnings figure--was EUR804 million, up from EUR529 million last year, helped mainly by improvements in its upstream business.

Write to Euan Conley at euan.conley@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 09, 2017 02:20 ET (07:20 GMT)