OMV Petrom increased its investment budget by 70% in the first half of this year (H1), despite the decrease in profit by almost 50%, company officials said during the financial results conference on Friday.
”The industrial activity in European Union has slowed down, and the consumption of natural gas and power is declining, despite the price decreases. Given the persistently tight supply issues, we believe that the way out of this difficult situation relies on investments to generate sustainable, long term economic value, increase capacities and relief market pressures,” said Christina Verchere, CEO, OMV Petrom.
”Despite lower revenues and more than 50% year on year drop in profits, contributions to the state budget, including dividends, reached 8.8 billion lei, in the first half of this year, close to the historical level recorded last year, in the same period. And investments incresed by more than 70%,” Verchere added.
“In the first six months of the year, energy prices on global markets have fallen significantly from the records set in 2022 and are approaching pre-energy crisis levels.
In this context, our net profit fell to 0.9 billion lei. Our investments increased by 70%, to 2.4 billion lei and our contribution to the state budget was 8.8 billion lei, a level similar to that of the first half of last year. At the same time, we have taken important steps to bring our Strategy 2030 to life. Neptun Deep has entered a new phase, following the final investment decision in June 2023, and our portfolio of green energy projects has grown to more of 1 GW of photovoltaics. We announced the intention to distribute special dividends for the year 2022, subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board and the General Meeting of Shareholders; thus, dividends paid in 2023 will reach a new record level. We continue to focus on providing cleaner and more sustainable energy to our customers while contributing to the country’s economic growth,” she added.
“The crisis is not over. We operate in a supply-constrained environment, offset by lower demand for most energy products. This context once again highlights the need for constant and significant investments in the energy sector to ensure security of energy supply. This is why stability and predictability are the most important premises of our activity. Despite the decrease in profit by approximately 50% compared to the same period of the previous year, we invest significantly more… While the net profit decreased from 4.6 billion lei to 0.9 billion lei, we increased investments by approximately 1 billion of lei, reaching 2.4 billion lei for the first six months of 2023,” said Alina Popa, the company’s CFO.
“The new solidarity contribution, applied to the volumes of processed crude oil, worth approximately 1.5 billion lei for the year 2022, was paid in June 2023. Therefore, the taxes specific to the sector increased by more than 10% compared to the same period of last year, at approximately 3.7 billion lei… Considering the special dividend proposed by the directorate, to be approved by the Supervisory Board, the total dividends to be paid this year to the state budget will amount to almost 1.1 billion lei: approximately 500 million lei basic dividends and approximately 600 million lei special dividends,” Alina Popa also said.
