Each year, OMV Petrom is one of the biggest contributors to the state budget; in general, it is about 2 billion euros per year. In the first 9 months of this year, the company already transferred 3 billion euros to the state accounts.
The increase in the contribution to the state budget was mainly determined by the evolution of direct taxes, which increased more than 5 times, up to 7.1 billion lei, as a result of the increase in gas and electricity taxes. “Our contribution to the state budget reached 15 billion lei,” said Christina Verchere, CEO of OMV Petrom, in a press release. The level is almost double compared to the same period last year and is due to “the increase in direct taxes which were more than 5 times higher, mainly determined by the taxation of gas and electricity”.
In an environment characterized by the company as “volatile, with high prices, with market fundamentals deeply affected by the geopolitical context”, the operating result of OMV Petrom increased to 10 billion lei, in the first 3 quarters. Investments totaled 2.3 billion lei, 25% more than last year. Depending on the investment climate, the total amount allocated to investments could near 4 billion lei.
Higher prices for crude oil and natural gas, as well as favorable refining margins contributed to a strong advance of operating results in the exploration and production segment – 4.3 billion lei (compared to 1.2 billion lei, in the first nine months from 2021), but also on refining and marketing segment – 3.1 billion lei (compared to 1.4 billion lei, in 2021). In the natural gas and electricity segment, the results increased spectacularly to 2.8 billion lei (compared to 337 million lei in 2021).
Natural gas sales volumes were 8% lower, in the context of a 14% drop in total market demand, according to OMV Petrom, and net electricity production rose to 3.53 TWh (9% of the mixed of electricity generation of Romania), the highest level since the beginning of commercial operations, 10 years ago.
Despite all the price hikes at the pump, retail sales volumes rose 2% in the first 9 months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2021.