OMV: Q3 retail and commercial margins increased q/q

BERLIN (Reuters) -Austrian oil and gas group OMV said on Monday its retail and commercial margins increased in the third quarter from the second.

OMV also said a mechanical incident at its Schwechat refinery would have a negative impact on its third quarter result “as we expect payments from the business interruption insurance at a later point in time.”

Full operations at the refinery resumed on Oct. 7.

On June 3, two people were injured when a part at a crude oil distillation unit exploded at the refinery towards the end of a planned turnaround that put a stop to output at the site.

OMV said in July it expected to take a financial hit of some 200 million euros ($194.40 million) from the incident at the Schwechat refinery.

In a third quarter trading update, OMV added: “Positive cash flow effects stemming from our natural gas exchange trading activity are expected to offset to a large extent the outflows coming from the injection of natural gas into the storages.”

In July, OMV reported figures showing it more than doubled second-quarter core operating profit on the back of soaring gas prices fuelled by the war in Ukraine.

($1 = 1.0288 euros)

(Reporting by Paul Carrel, editing by Kirsti Knolle)