February 1 (SeeNews) - The hydrocarbon production of Romania's top oil and gas group, OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP], decreased 1.6% on the year to 183,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in the fourth quarter of 2012, its majority owner, Austria’s OMV, said on Friday.
On a quarterly basis, Petrom's output inched up 0.55% in the fourth quarter, OMV said in its quarterly trading statement.
"Production in Austria and Romania showed a slightly positive development due to seasonally higher gas production. Sales volumes were above Q3/12, mainly because of an overlifting in Tunisia and the first lifting of the year in Yemen," the statement added.
Gas sales volume swelled by 56.3% on the quarter to 14.44 terawatt-hours (TWh) in October-December. Compared with the year-ago period, Petrom’s gas sales volume decreased by 11% in the fourth quarter "but the margin level remained favorable," OMV said.
Blue-chip OMV Petrom closed 1.72% down at 0.4393 lei ($0.1360/0.1002 euro) on the Bucharest bourse on Thursday.
(1 euro=4.3844 Romanian lei)