Austrian oil and gas company OMV has said that second-quarter profit dropped 29 percent as production fell in Libya and its gas-trading unit lost money, according to Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Gerhard Roiss (pictured) is shifting OMV’s focus to exploration and production, including in Iraqi Kurdistan, while selling assets like gas stations in southeast Europe and Austrian gas storage facilities.
Production fell 2.6 percent to 297,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter after fields came to a standstill in Libya due to violent attacks on the oil industry.
OMV also wrote down 55 million euros in the quarter because the Nabucco pipeline project lost its bid to transport gas from the Caspian Sea to central Europe. The demise of Nabucco means OMV will concentrate more on finding its own gas.
(Source: Bloomberg)
