Energy group OMV’s quarterly earnings hit by lower commodities prices -February 01, 2024 at 03:10 am EST
(Reuters) -Austrian energy group OMV registered an expected decline in fourth-quarter earnings, it said on Thursday, citing declines in previously high commodity prices.
The oil and gas company’s quarterly operating profit adjusted to strip out one-off effects and inventory gains or losses slid 32% year on year to 1.43 billion euros ($1.54 billion), slightly above expectations of analysts polled by the company.
Margins at petrochemicals companies have been squeezed by a drop in energy prices from the peaks reached after the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.
OMV’s energy sales, its main source of income, were also hit by dealys in supplies from Libya, Norway and Tunisia, it said.
Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) recently declared force majeure at its Sharara oilfield, in which OMV holds a stake, citing protests in the area.
For 2024, OMV expects total hydrocarbon production to decline to between 330,000 and 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) depending on the timing of its divestment of Malaysian assets and the situation in Libya.
OMV’s executive board on Wednesday proposed a dividend of 5.05 euros per share for 2023, unchanged from 2022.
($1 = 0.9258 euros)
(Reporting by Tristan Veyet and Andrey Sychev in GdanskEditing by Rachel More and David Goodman)
By Andrey Sychev and Tristan Veyet
