Austrian oil & gas company OMV posted a 52% increase in its profit, the firm recorded an operating profit of €804 million ($932.9 million) for it’s 3rd quarter.
Net profit for the period ended September 30 was €439 million ($509 million) compared with €48 million a year earlier, although sales fell to €4.65 billion, well below expectations of €5.51 billion outlined in a survey conducted by FactSet.
Last year's sales figure was €5.25 billion.
OMV's upstream business, entailing exploration and production, swung to an operating result of €247 million from a loss of €316 million a year earlier.
OMV attributed the improvement to a higher contribution from Norway, the restart of production in Libya starting in the 4rth quarter of 2016, and higher realized oil and gas prices.
Operating results from OMV's downstream business, which includes refining, marketing and distribution services, rose to €517 million from €489 million.
The Austrian integrated oil-and-gas company said that its clean current cost of supply operating result - an adjusted operating earnings figure - was €804 million, up from €529 million last year, helped mainly by improvements in its upstream business.
