It reported third-quarter sales revenue of RON5.032 billion, 10% higher compared with the same period last year, supported by by higher oil and natural gas prices, increased petroleum product sales volumes, partially offset by lower sales volumes of natural gas and electricity.
“In Q3/17, we enjoyed another quarter with strong macroeconomic fundamentals supporting higher demand for our products and higher sales volumes. We benefited from increased commodity prices and very strong refining margins. In addition, we continued our strict cost discipline to increase our competitive position and moved forward with investments. We expect 2017 investments to be below EUR0.7 billion, while maintaining the guidance for the daily average production decline. We have recently seen progress with respect to government proposals regarding the royalty regime, for both onshore and offshore, as well as the operational framework for offshore activities,” said OMV Petrom CEO Mariana Gheorghe.
In July, the company sold a wind park to focus on core activities and in August it transferred 19 onshore oil fields to Mazarine Energy SRL, a fully owned Romanian subsidiary of Mazarine Energy B.V.
Petrom continued to lower employee numbers in the third quarter and had 13,886 employees end-September, 446 fewer than at the end of June and 1,089 fewer than at the end of September 2016.
In 2016, OMV Petrom reported sales of RON16.2 billion, 10% lower on the year, and had a net profit of RON1 billion from a loss of RON690 million a year earlier.