OMV Petrom anticipates roughly 840 ml euro worth of investments this year

OMV Petrom expects its capital expenditures this year to be around 4 billion lei (roughly 840 million euro), with about 75 percent of this amount directed to the Upstream exploration and production sector; the company reported investments worth 1.7 billion lei in H1 2019, according to the financial results released on Wednesday by the Bucharest Stock Exchange. 

Last year, the company made investments worth 4.29 billion lei, up 44 percent compared to 2017. 

"CAPEX (including capitalized exploration and appraisal) is currently anticipated to be around 4.0 bn lei (revised up from 3.7 bn lei) mainly due to the IFRS16 accounting treatment of a long-term contract in Upstream. Of this amount about 75 percent is to be routed to Upstream. In Neptun Deep the current legislative environment does not provide the necessary prerequisites for a multi-billion investment decision. We remain keen to see the Black Sea developed and we are in dialogue with the authorities to understand the way forward," the company said in its Q2 2019 fact sheet report. 

"OMV Petrom Group must supply the regulated market with 12.5 TWh of gas for the period May - December 2019 at a maximum price of 68 lei/MWh. We estimate total gas sales volumes to be higher vs. 2018. The Brazi power plant must supply the regulated market with 1.14 TWh of power for the period March - December 2019 at the price of 259.58 lei/MWh; we estimate the total net electrical output to be lower vs. 2018," the OMV Petrom report goes on to state. 

OMV Petrom posted a net profit of 1.975 billion lei in H1, by 53 pct higher compared to the 1.288 billion lei reported in the same period of the previous year, according to the financial results sent on Wednesday to the Bucharest Stock Exchange. 

In Q2 the company reported a net profit of 823 million lei, down from 1.151 billion lei in Q1. In Q2 2018 OMV Petrom had a net profit of 434 million lei. 

As of mid-2019, OMV Petrom had 12,767 employees, down from 13,421 in the same period last year. 

The Austrian group OMV is Petrom's majority shareholder with a 51.01 pct stake, the Ministry of Economy holds 20.64 pct of the company's stake, and the Proprietatea Fund - 20.11 pct. 

Petrom is Romania's largest oil and gas company, with activities in the Upstream (Exploration and Production), Downstream Oil (Refining and Marketing), Downstream Gas (Gas and Energy) sectors.