OMV coy on possible upstream/downstream split

The Austrian firm is not ruling anything out ahead of a March strategy update

“I do not want to comment on rumours that were picked up—I do not know how—in the press.” So said Alfred Stern, the relatively new CEO of Austrian oil and gas firm OMV, in response to an early February analyst question on whether the company was considering splitting its upstream and downstream activities into separate concerns. “I would like to reference 16 March, where we will make a presentation of our strategy [and] how we are going to move forward.” The lack of a firm denial may serve only to increase speculation that March’s Capital Markets Day (CMD) will see the Austrian integrated player announce such plans. So will a split occur? “It is a likely scenario,” Tamas Pletser, oil and gas