Austrian oil and gas group OMV raised production by 5 percent in the third quarter from the second as progress in Libya and Norway offset lower volumes in Austria and Romania. OMV said on October 20 production was 311,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), up from 297,000 in the second quarter and 275,000 a year earlier. Its refining margin jumped to $4.90 per barrel from $1.92 in the second quarter.
OMV said in its trading statement that completion of a modernisation programme at a refinery in Romania "adds approximately $5/bbl to the standard profitability of the Petrobrazi refinery".
"This is equivalent to an overall increase of the OMV indicator refining margin across all the refining assets of the group of approximately $1/bbl," it said.
Improved middle distillate spreads also helped the margin.
Oil output in Libya, which accounted for 10 percent of OMV's total production before the 2011 uprising which toppled Muammar Gadaffi, has been hit by disruptions since mid-March due to unrest and protests at oilfields and ports.
OMV still has production disruptions in Libya and output in Yemen is also suffering from attacks on pipelines, it said last week.
The company announced that Chief Executive Gerhard Roiss would leave at the end of June, nearly two years ahead of schedule, as part of a shake-up that will involve its gas business being merged into a downstream division.
OMV said it would have net charges of around 20 million euros in the third quarter. It expected its tax rate to rise to between 35 and 40 percent, driven mostly by increased liftings in Libya.
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