2019 was a successful year for OMV in a challenging market environment. Michael Woltran presents one of the OMV highlights of the second half 2019. The way we live today is unthinkable without energy. And in future, this energy will need to have even lower CO2 emissions. Gas has a key role to play here. Natural gas on the road can reduce CO2 by 10 to 20 percent – and it can do so immediately. That is also true for heavy traffic. An area where gas clearly trumps the alternatives.

2019 was a successful year for OMV in a challenging market environment. OMV achieved a strong operating result of 3.5 billion Euros. The financial performance in Upstream decreased in 2019 mainly due to higher depreciation following the acquisitions in New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia as well as lower realized oil and gas prices. The operating result in Downstream performed well, driven by strong commercial and retail operations.

The OMV Strategy 2025 builds on this proven concept of integration. This ensures that, even during a crisis, the Group has a balanced and robust revenue stream. OMV’s intention to growth in both Upstream and Downstream has been executed successfully. Our broader Upstream operations are balanced by a larger Downstream asset base. By increasing our share in the petrochemicals company, Borealis, we have expanded further along the value chain.

With the increase of OMV’s share in Borealis to 75%, OMV has begun its transformation from a traditional oil and gas company into a global gas, oil and chemicals group, which is active in over 120 countries on 5 continents. We have successfully extended our value chain that runs from the wellhead to the refinery through to high-quality plastics. With this, we are laying the foundation for OMV in a lower-carbon future. In order to reflect the structural changes of forward integration into the chemicals sector, OMV has adjusted its corporate structure. From now on, OMV’s reporting will be based on three strong pillars integrated along the value chain: Exploration & Production, Refining & Marketing, and Chemicals & Materials. In the first quarter of 2021, OMV achieved an exceptionally strong – despite the external circumstances – Clean CCS operating result of 870 million euros. This was 24% higher than in the same period last year following the successful diversification of the portfolio with the expansion of t