Unrest in Arab states causes drop in OMV production

VIENNA: Austrian oil and gas giant OMV said on Friday that unrest in North Africa and the Arab peninsula led to an overall drop in its oil production in the second quarter of the year.

Oil and gas production fell by 14 percent to 275,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day in April-June, from 318,000 boe per day in the same period last year.

This was "mainly due to the ongoing political instability in Libya and Yemen," OMV said in a statement.

Oil production alone fell by 39,400 barrels per day from the second quarter of 2010, it said, without however giving the figures for April-June 2011.

A pipeline was damaged in the first quarter in the political unrest in Yemen but has now been repaired, although OMV warned that resuming production may still take a while.

The company's final statement will come out on August 10.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011