Disruptions in Libya were in part to blame for the 37 percent decline in second quarter profits, Austrian oil and gas company OMV said Tuesday.
Chief Executive Officer Gerhard Roiss said in a statement announcing second quarter earnings the results were affected negatively by a weak U.S. dollar and instability in Libya and Yemen, two key parts of its Middle East portfolio.
Yemen since the so-called Arab Spring in 2011 has struggled to maintain a sense of national security. In July, the government there said restive tribesmen in Marib province attacked an oil pipeline, cutting exports to a Red Sea terminal.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni this month declared the oil crisis in his country solved, though production of 500,000 barrels per day is far below a post-war peak of around 1.4 million bpd in 2013.
"The security situation in Libya and Yemen remains very difficult to predict," OMV's second quarter report read. "While production in Yemen has been interrupted for about one month in 2014, Libyan production has been shut in for large parts of the year."
OMV said its second quarter net income was 37 percent below the first quarter. Nevertheless, Roiss said his company was buoyed by developments outside the Middle East.
"We continued to pursue our focused strategy throughout all our business segments," he said.
