[ad_1]
The CEO of the company, Rainer Seele, spoke yesterday of a “new OMV” in the online presentation of the balance of 2020. In the future, the growth should come from the chemical sector, while the previous goals for the production of oil and gas have been significantly reduced. .
“The world has changed,” said the OMV chief. “We assume that the electrification of mobility and transportation will take hold. We assume that other drivers will also determine this market in the future and consequently we expect a consolidation in the refining business globally.”
Funding targets were significantly lowered
For this reason, Seele is significantly backtracking the targets it set for oil and gas production in 2018: “OMV will no longer strategically pursue the long-term goal of 600,000 barrels per day and doubling reserves.” In the future, the goal is to reach a production level of 480,000 to 500,000 barrels per day. This roughly corresponds to the current level of production.
“Chemicals & Materials is the growth segment,” Seele explained, and this should be reflected in the composition of OMV’s Executive Board. The former director of OMV’s chemical subsidiary Borealis, Alfred Stern (56), will move to the parent company’s board on April 1 and will be responsible for the entire chemical division. The former Refining and Petrochemical Operations division, for which Thomas Gangl is currently responsible as a member of the Board of Directors, will be divided into Refining and Chemicals and Materials. Gangl remains on OMV’s Board of Directors for the time being. Soul still didn’t want to reveal who would lead the Borealis in the future.
According to Seele, Austria has planned investments of three billion euros in medium-term planning, a third of which will be for sustainable projects, “for the recycling of plastics, for renewable energy and for the production of green hydrogen”. Nor will domestic oil and gas production in Austria be neglected. Currently, about ten percent of the national oil and gas needs come from OMV wells.
Low oil prices made things difficult for OMV in 2020: sales fell 29 percent to € 16.55 billion, operating profit before inventory-adjusted specialty items halved to € 1,686 million, and the final result was a net profit of 1,686 million euros. .48 billion euros (minus 31 percent). The chemical subsidiary Borealis obtained a net profit of 589 million euros the previous year, after 872 million euros the previous year. (hn)
See also human on page 4
Article of
Hermann Neumüller
Economy editor
