OMV Third-Quarter Output Gains, Helped by Austria

By Matthias Wabl

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- OMV AG, central Europe's biggest oil company, said third-quarter oil and gas output rose 1.9 percent from the second quarter, helped by higher volumes in Austria.

Output climbed to 316,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from 310,000 barrels in the second quarter, Vienna-based OMV said on its Web site today. The company's refining margin, or the difference between the price of crude oil and the refined products it yields, fell to $6.24 a barrel from $6.76 in the previous quarter, OMV said.

OMV has been investing in production in Austria, Romania and Kazakhstan to make up for falling output in maturing North Sea oil fields. The company plans to boost production to 400,000 barrels in 2010 and wants to acquire additional output of 100,000 barrels.

``The completion of the field development of Strasshof and Ebenthal in Austria brought additional gas quantities,'' OMV said, while output in Romania and the U.K. were still subdued partly on maintenance, according to the company.

OMV also said it will write down the value of its Romanian Arpechim refinery by about 160 million euros ($216 million) because of ``high own energy consumption, unfavorable product yields and high fixed costs.'' OMV bought the refinery in 2004 when purchasing SNP Petrom, Romania's biggest oil company.

OMV sold 5.81 million tons of refined products in the quarter, little changed from the second quarter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthias Wabl in Vienna at mwabl@bloomberg.net