OMV Petrom tripled its net profit in the first half of the year

OMV Petrom announced today a net profit of 2.6 billion RON for the first six months of the year, increasing almost three times compared to the 944 million RON for the first six months of last year.

Christina Verchere, CEO OMV Petrom: “In the first 6 months we had a good performance, supported by our integrated business model, recovering market demand for our products and higher utilization of our downstream assets. However, lower gas and power prices combined with lower hydrocarbon volumes for sale led to a 15% lower Clean CCS operating result of approximately 3 billion RON. During this period, we contributed around 8 bn lei to the Romanian State budget, including dividends, and invested approximately 2.4 billion RON.

Our main role is to provide energy and we have done this successfully: new wells and workovers had a good contribution to our hydrocarbon production, we have placed high quantities of natural gas in storage meeting the legal obligation, the refinery continues to operate above the EU average and Brazi power plant is a high contributor to the stability of the Romanian electricity market. In parallel, we continued Neptun Deep development, we advanced with our projects in renewable energy and electro-mobility, and we took the final investment decision for a SAF/HVO production unit. With this progress and planned 2024 investments of up to 8 bn lei, we are well positioned to lead the energy transition in Romania and South-East Europe.”

Group

• Clean CCS Operating Result at RON 3.1 bn, 15% below the 6m/23 result, mainly due to lower gas and power prices and lower hydrocarbons sales, partially offset by higher refinery utilization and good performance of the sales channels  
• Net income increased to RON 2.6 bn vs. RON 0.9 bn in 6m/23
• CAPEX at RON 2.4 bn, 1% higher, mainly directed to Exploration & Production  
• State budget contribution at RON ~8.3 bn, slightly below the RON 8.8 bn in 6m/23
• Dividends: base dividend of RON 0.0413/share paid in June 2024 and special dividend of RON 0.0300/share approved to be paid starting September; this translates into a total dividend yield of 12.4%.

Exploration and Production

• Clean Operating Result at RON 1.6 bn vs. RON 2.1 bn in 6m/23, mainly driven by lower gas prices and hydrocarbon sales volumes
• Good results from new wells and workovers partially mitigated natural decline resulting in a production decrease of 3% yoy
• Production cost increased by 6% to USD ~15.8/boe, due to higher personnel costs and lower production available for sale

Refining and Marketing

• Clean CCS Operating Result at RON ~1.2 bn from a low base in 6m/23 of RON 758 mn, as a result of the refinery turnaround in Q2/23 and improved performance of the sales channels, partly offset by lower refining margins
• OMV Petrom indicator refining margin at USD 11/bbl in 6m/24, as a result of weaker spreads for diesel and gasoline and a higher crude oil price environment
• Refinery utilization rate at 95% vs. 64% in 6m/23, as 2023 was impacted by turnaround, and above EU average
• High performing sales channels: total refined product sales increased by 14%. Romanian retail increased by 6% versus the same period last year. 

Gas and Power

• Clean Operating Result at RON ~0.4 bn vs RON 1.2 bn in 6m/23; reflecting a good operational performance in both gas and power business segments, although impacted by changes in legislation and market dynamics
• Gas sales volumes down 10%, on lower volumes to wholesales, including regulated, and end users, while higher offtake by Brazi power plant
• Net electrical output of ~2.1 TWh vs ~1 TWh in 6m/23, highest output for a first half-year, Brazi power plant being in a shorter planned outage compared to the same period of 2023.