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MOSCOW (MRC) -- OMV (Vienna, Austria)
says its petrochemical net margin declined 15% year on year (YOY) in the third
quarter ended 30 September, while its refining margin indicator plunged 84% YOY,
reported Chemweek.
In a trading
update ahead of the company’s third-quarter results, due to be released on 29
October, OMV says its ethylene/propylene net margin fell to EUR375/metric ton
(USD441/metric ton) from EUR441/metric ton a year earlier. The third-quarter
petchem margin is also down from EUR393/metric ton in the second quarter of this
year. The company calculates the petchem net margin based on West European
contract prices, with naphtha as the feedstock.
OMV’s refining margin
indicator collapsed to USD0.87/barrel (bbl) in the quarter from USD5.46/bbl in
the prior-year period, and is also down substantially from the second-quarter
figure of USD2.26/bbl. The company’s refinery capacity utilization rate averaged
90% in the third quarter, a decline of 6% from a year earlier but up from 79% in
the second quarter of this year.
OMV recorded a “positive contribution”
in the third quarter from refining margin hedges in a “mid-double digit million
Euros magnitude,” it says.
As MRC informed earlier,
Austrian energy group OMV sees hope for a recovery in oil prices in the second
half of 2020 helped by increased fuel demand and output cuts by producers such
as Saudi Arabia, according to its chief executive's statement in May
2020.
We remind that on 12 March, 2020, Austria’s OMV OMV, the
international integrated gas and oil company headquartered in Vienna, and
Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi-based strategic investment company,
signed an
agreement that will give OMV a controlling stake in Borealis, one of Europe’s
leading petrochemical companies. OMV, which currently owns a 36% stake in
Borealis, will acquire an additional 39% from Mubadala, increasing its stake to
75%. Mubadala will retain a 25% interest. The closing of the transaction is
expected by the end of 2020 and is subject to regulatory approvals.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE)
and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven
months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)
accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, overall PP
production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to
1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the
output. |
