Listen to the news

The Austrian concern OMV recorded a profit amounting to billions of euros last year.

This was announced today by Alfred Stern, the head of the industrial giant.

"We are extremely proud to have had a record year."

The operating result of the concern has more than doubled and amounted to 12.246 billion euros, the net profit of 5.175 billion is 85 percent higher than the previous year. 

As Stern emphasized, efforts to diversify gas supplies have led to successful solutions.

But the state also won, receiving around one billion euros in taxes and fees.

Oil is getting cheaper in Asia

The importance of OMV for the country's economy, Stern emphasized, saying: "Our contribution to the economy is about 1.6 percent of the gross domestic product, we provide many jobs and supply energy to the whole country, which makes possible the life we ​​lead."

For Christoph Matznetter, the economic spokesman for the opposition Social Democratic Party of Austria, this is very little.

He wants to introduce an extraordinary tax on all profits of energy companies exceeding the previous year's profit by ten percent. 

The Austrian concern OMV has a stake in the extraction of gas from the Russian Yuzhno-Ruskoye gas field.

This participation has already been written off from the company's assets, which cost the concern two billion in losses, but this gas field is also of strategic importance to Russia and "therefore, the legal framework conditions to terminate our participation are very limited."

The payment of dividends to enterprises from "enemy countries" is prohibited in Russia, Stern explained, which is why Russia has no contribution to the annual result.

profit