OMV Chief Emma Delaney Says Low Fuel Stocks Will Keep Refining Markets Tight

"Stocks are at quite a low level; depending on some markets, they're at historic low levels," Ms Delaney told The National in an interview on the sidelines of the ADIPEC conference. She said refining margins were "at very elevated levels this year", especially in the third quarter, and that disruptions would take time to work through the market.

Her view matters to the Gulf because OMV is one of Abu Dhabi's oldest energy partners. It has worked with ADNOC and its investment arm XRG for about three decades across upstream production, refining and chemicals, and it co-owns Borouge International with XRG. Ms Delaney, a former BP executive, became OMV's first female chief executive on September 1.

The war with Iran, now in its ninth month, continues to restrict flows through the Strait of Hormuz. The International Energy Agency said in its October report that global observed oil inventories, covering both crude and refined products, fell by 509 million barrels between the end of February and the end of September, and it expects the market to stay in deficit through the end of the year. ADNOC chief executive Dr Sultan Al Jaber told the conference this week that "in some markets, stocks of diesel are at their lowest seasonal level in 35 years."

That tightness lifted OMV's third-quarter clean operating result by 68 per cent to €2.1 billion, its best since 2022. Its European refining indicator margin more than tripled to $37.50 a barrel. The company has raised its full-year refining margin guidance but has not given a 2027 outlook.

Ms Delaney said high margins only pay off if the plants keep running. "It's one thing having the margins high, but you really want to be able to run your assets really well to be able to play into that market," she said, noting that OMV's three refineries ran at 92 per cent utilisation in the quarter.

The Abu Dhabi Partnership

OMV's stake in ADNOC Refining and Trading contributed €158 million in the quarter, up from €52 million a year earlier. Ms Delaney said the company's Abu Dhabi upstream operations had shown "really fast resilience" during the supply crisis, and that the refining joint venture had been able "to recover really quickly".

Chemicals were less steady. Prices jumped in the second quarter and then fell back sharply in the third, though she said "so far in 4Q looks like things are stabilising again". OMV's chemicals operating result fell to €63 million from €222 million, partly because Borealis is now accounted for differently after it was folded into Borouge International.

That venture, a 50-50 polyolefins company formed in March by combining Borouge, Borealis and Nova Chemicals, has "global reach, potential for synergies, and ability to be really a leading player", Ms Delaney said. Borouge International this week raised its 2030 capacity target to 13.8 million tonnes.

Gas for Europe and No Strategy Change Yet

In Europe, Ms Delaney said the Neptun Deep project in Romania's Black Sea, due to start production next year, would have "sufficient gas both for Romania and to export into European markets". The field, owned equally by OMV Petrom and state-owned Romgaz, holds an estimated 100 billion cubic metres of recoverable gas and is expected to produce about 8 bcm a year at plateau, nearly doubling Romania's output.

OMV moved last year to a strategy built around integrated energy, fuels and chemicals. Ms Delaney, who has spent her first eight weeks meeting staff and visiting sites, said it was too early to set out any changes. She was cautious about how the refining windfall would be used. "This is a cyclical business," she said.