Conference Call Q&A Transcript (Transcript OMV Q1 2026 Conference Call)

OMV Q1 2026 Conference Call - Q&A Transcript

‌OMV published its results for Q1 2026 on April 30, 2026. The investor and analyst conference call was broadcasted as a live audio-webcast at 11:30 am CEST. Below is the transcript of the question-and-answer session, by topic, edited for clarity.

‌OMV Group

‌Dividends

Question by Sasikanth Chilukuru - Jefferies:

Are you expecting any dividends from ADNOC Refining and Trading this year? And from Borouge International, I was just wondering, if there was any risk to that updated dividend payments and also the timing for these payments to OMV?

Answer by Reinhard Florey:

In terms of the dividends from JVs, of course, we are also expecting a dividend from ADNOC Refining and specifically from ADNOC Global Trading, these are two entities in which we have a participation. While we are seeing that ADNOC Refining is, of course, bearing some of the burden of the conflict, we are also seeing a rather

stabilizing development there for the rest of the year. ADNOC Global Trading, on the other hand, is doing a great job, earning very good money, and we are also expecting dividends from that side.

We have announced that the anticipated Borouge International dividend represent only 50% of the anticipated minimum dividend in 2026. Given the uncertainty around the situation in Middle East this provided some safety for the balance sheet, making sure that the excellent rating that we have in the group stays unchanged. We are not expecting any further modifications to that. So, of course, we are expecting the other 50% for the second half of the year.

Question by Matthew Lofting - J. P. Morgan:

Given that you expect to pay to your shareholders EUR 0.60 to EUR 0.70 less per share for the financial year 2026, from the Borouge International dividend payment net to OMV - why couldn´t that be protected more strongly

through the higher cash flows of the rest of the business and is there is still the possibility to revise this upwards?

Answer by Reinhard Florey:

Given the first-quarter view on overall OMV dividends, I wouldn't be overly pessimistic. The situation could still improve over time. If we are lucky, there may be a slight shift from Borouge International dividends (down EUR 0.60-0.70) to dividends from operating cash flow (excl. Borouge International dividends), of which we distribute 20-30%. This could partly offset the outlook from the start of the year, though the overall dividend structure remains unchanged.

‌Middle East

Question by Joshua Stone - UBS:

Your net production capacity in UAE is around 50 kboe/d in the upstream. Do you think you can actually produce more from these fields? I'm asking given the headline recently about the UAE leaving OPEC.

Answer by Alfred Stern:

I would confirm that last year, the average production there was about 50 kboe/d. Production in March was affected by the supply chain issues with lower production coming out of the assets there. At the moment, however, this is back online. How this will continue exactly is a bit volatile depending on the situation in the Middle East. Hence, also our guidance for the full year of the total production is between 280 kboe/d and 290 kboe/d.

Question by Oleg Galbur - ODDO BHF:

Could you please update us on the current status of the oil production in the UAE and capacity utilization at

Borouge? Specifically, to what extent is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz affecting OMV´s ability to produce and, more importantly, to sell crude oil and petrochemical products produced in the UAE?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

As you mentioned, we participate in assets in the Middle East, where we are a joint venture owner in oil production together with ADNOC. The production there was reduced in March, but it is now back online and supplying the local demand there. We expect that this will also be optimized in the month after.

In the first quarter Borouge had an asset utilization in the high 90% range, close to 100%, and continues to be able to operate reliably. They had a pre-existing contingency plan for exporting products in case the waterways were not available, and they activated this mechanism. With this, in March they were able to export more than 60% of production through these alternative logistics channels.

They put the additional production volumes into storage and are expected to be shipped in the second quarter of this year. Of course, they will continue to maximize their production levels as well. So, there are alternative evacuation routes to keep up production, and storage capabilities to maintain the high production levels.

Question by Sadnan Ali - HSBC:

You have grouped together the UAE and the Kurdistan region of Iraq in your country-level productions. What is your decision behind this?

Answer by Reinhard Florey:

We grouped together Middle East simply because it breathes and lives with geopolitical situations in that region. So, if we would do that asset by asset, it would still have the same kind of volatility. Therefore, we have grouped that

together. We are talking here about our asset participations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, KRI, on the one hand, and our participations in the SARB and Umm Lulu fields in Abu Dhabi on the other. Together, this amount is around 60 kb/d in total. As you have seen in the past, it is 50 kboe/d from UAE and 10 kboe/d from KRI. Putting that from a region together makes more sense, if we look at the volatility that we have there. Just to give you an example, temporarily, we have been impacted in both of these regions from the conflict in the Middle East. And as soon as

conditions improve and issues are resolved, both regions will come back to full volumes. The real difference is that KRI production is gas, while the Emirates volumes are oil. Otherwise, in terms of impact that we show, they are very easily connected.

Question by Sadnan Ali - HSBC:

It has been two months since the conflict started, what have you managed well and what do you think you could have done better?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

I think it was really timely to close the Borouge International transaction. And as we tried to describe, this is

transformative for OMV and will be very important going forward. It creates a very strong company, and it will play a key role in the future of our integrated business model. If we did it even earlier, that would have been ideal, but

overall, I think this is a fantastic step in the right direction. Also, we have not talked about this specifically, but I do want to remind you of our cash flow efficiency program that we are executing on. As part of that is also our cost reduction program. This is well on track, and we continue to move forward because we believe efficiency and

productivity remain key drivers for us going forward, even in an environment where prices have increased and are higher today.

On what we could have done better, I would say the hedge, where one leg was missing in the end. If we had had somehow the information that the Strait would close, I would have loved to forego that piece, quite honestly. But

this is part of our normal business, it is not unusual and was also compensated by positive effects on the other side.

And the last thing, but this is only semi-serious, if you remember a few years ago, Borealis divested their fertilizer business, and I still think that was a very important strategic move at the time and will continue to be so, because it was mainly a European focus. That business was fully European-focused production for ammonia or nitrogen-based fertilizer. At this moment, however, fertilizer globally is quite short, and the prices are high. So that would be

something that could be quite some fun right now.

‌EU windfall tax

Question by Matthew Lofting - J. P. Morgan:

There were reports earlier this month on Austria being one of the countries pushing the EU to look at revised EU windfall tax measures on the energy sector in the context of the price shock. Could you explain the current status and situation there?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

Austria was one of the signatories of a letter that was sent to Brussels. Up until this point, our information is not more than that. Hopefully, Europe will continue to pursue free market economy principles with the possibility to manage the current difficult supply and demand situation.

‌Cash Flow

Question by Adnan Dhanani - RBC:

Cash flow in Q1/26 benefited from significant timing effects, leading to a material beat versus expectations. Could you clarify the drivers, and whether these effects are expected to reverse?

Answer by Reinhard Florey:

OMV has once again shown very strong and resilient cash flow. We have come up with slightly more than

EUR 1.6 bn of operating cash flow excluding net working capital, and almost EUR 800 mn of operating cash flow including the net working capital effects. Looking at the timing effects, they can be broken down more or less into three different factors.

One, of course, is the net working capital. This effect resulted from the sudden increase in prices. We saw a significant negative impact both on inventories and through the netting of payables and receivables, leading to a build-up of net working capital that negatively influenced cash flow in the first quarter. However, this will come back if prices normalize again. So therefore, I see that as a positive timing effect.

On the other hand, there is a little bit of an opposite effect in the CCS, in the valuation effects regarding our inventories. Here, we saw a gain from the CCS in the result that also is visible in cash flow. If prices decline again, this time difference effect also will go away. We are talking here about a EUR 250 mn positive impact in Q1/26.

The third element are gas derivatives. This is a pure timing effect, where we have seen a positive impact of between EUR 100 mn and EUR 160 mn in the first quarter. Over time, when these derivatives are resolved, this effect will reverse and be distributed over the remaining three quarters. So yes, it will come back, but it will have a smaller impact. In total again, the basis cash flows have been resilient and strong and I think this is what we will also keep for the rest of the year.

‌Energy

‌European gas market

Question by Adnan Dhanani - RBC:

We are now facing a second crisis in the energy market in four years, and presumably there is going to be more focus on domestic energy security in Europe. As a major producer of gas in Europe, how do you see that opportunity set for you in the coming years?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

The gas market is indeed quite a volatile environment. We are now giving an outlook of an increased average price for THE, the German market benchmark, of about EUR 45/MWh. The first quarter was around EUR 41/MWh to EUR 42/MWh, that consisted of low January and February, followed by a significant increase in March. Prices came

down a little bit again to around EUR 45/MWh in the beginning of April, but then yesterday's announcement pushed prices up again. So, it is a very volatile situation. As you know, the Qatar LNG represents a significant amount of LNG coming to the global markets. While most of the shipments went to Asia, given that it is a global market, we have seen an increase in the prices.

2025 was slightly higher than 2024 in terms of the average annual THE price, but now prices have moved back up again to levels more similar to 2023. European storage levels are on the low side, and we do see some intermittent windows where we can lock in some winter spread and increase storage. Over the last week, we have seen small increases in storage levels, but overall, it is still on the low side. We see the forward curves, they are rather flat, which makes refilling storage more complicated. I see a certain risk that getting towards the winter, we may potentially enter the season with lower storage levels. If the demand in the coming winter goes up, prices would then also strengthen in the market. From an OMV perspective on the storage levels, Austria is here in a special

situation, because it has in total about one year of demand storage capacity. With this, the storage requirement is a bit lower, at around 35%, and we are already above that requirement. So, from that perspective, going forward, we will commercially optimize this.

‌Neptun Deep

Question by Adnan Dhanani - RBC:

Any update on your search on Neptun Deep lookalikes?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

We continue to be on plan in executing the Neptun Deep project, as we have reported previously. The first four wells on the shallow end have been drilled, and we have now started the drilling on the further six wells on the deeper end, while also advancing with the platform. Everything is according to plan, and we are still looking at the original 2027 start-up. That is the right moment for it to come, because we see the wedge of import requirements into Europe opening year over year going forward, so that Neptun Deep will come at a good time to improve security of supply in the market, which will be priced mainly from LNG import differentials.

‌Fuels

‌Refining margins

Question by Guilherme Levy - Morgan Stanley:

Could you tell us about the refining margins that you're seeing at the moment.

Answer by Alfred Stern:

Refining indicator margins, particularly in Europe, went up dramatically after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

After that, we saw some normalization, but margins are continuing to be at a high level. In April, we saw margins starting at about USD 16/bbl. I think there are a couple of different things that probably play into this. The crude basket and crude pricing are, of course, quite volatile. At OMV, we had very limited physical exposure to crudes

coming out of the Strait of Hormuz. Our crude baskets were more focused on other crudes, with a significant share coming from Kazakhstan, along with additional volumes from other sources. So, our current expectation for the rest of the year is within a pretty broad range of USD 10/bbl to USD 15/bbl, because we see significant volatility on the way forward.

Question by Guilherme Levy - Morgan Stanley:

Looking at the remainder of the year, the company highlighted risks to the Fuels segment on the back of the

volatility of crude differentials. I wondered what you can do in advance to hedge or protect yourself against those types of risks?

Answer by Reinhard Florey:

Of course, in the downstream area, we apply some hedging in order to mitigate risks. At the same time, we also need to keep some flexibility to be able to take advantage of opportunities. In March, however, we suffered from the hedge, with a loss of around EUR 100 mn. This was simply due to the situation where oil that was intended to be lifted and transported through the Strait of Hormuz was physically not available, while the hedge was in place.

Therefore, one leg of the hedge disappeared, which had to be covered in the situation of rising oil prices. However, this is not an uncommon situation. On the other hand, some of the hedges also protected us from additional

damage.

Question by Sasikanth Chilukuru - Jeffries:

Coming back to your refining margin indicator guidance. You've raised it to a range of USD 10/bbl to USD 15/bbl but the widening of the crude oil differentials may have a material adverse impact. Could you quantify the level of these adverse impacts you have seen in April so far or currently.

Answer by Alfred Stern:

We saw in the first quarter that January and February looked quite different compared to March. The latter showed a significant increase in refining indicator margins. This is however a very rough indicator based on fuel prices. In

reality, it is a little bit more complicated, and the market distortions are also quite significant going forward. For the second quarter, we do expect some adverse effects from increased crude differentials, which will depend on how geopolitical issues and risks continue to evolve. We definitely see tighter supply conditions, which we, of course, are continuously optimizing to ensure that we position ourselves in the best possible way. In addition, we see local supply dynamics working out, and, increasingly, particularly in Europe, regulatory interventions and price caps also impacting results. For this reason, we have also left the corridor of the USD 10/bbl to USD 15/bbl to reflect this, and we will, of course, continue to optimize our result in this volatile environment.

‌Crude supply

Question by Guilherme Levy - Morgan Stanley:

Could you say a few words about current storage levels, your ability to procure crude over the coming months. How much of your crude supplies come from spot transactions vis-a-vis long-term agreements?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

The storage of crude for the refineries is limited to just a few weeks of storage. If you look at our refineries, the Austrian refinery is connected by a pipeline to the Adriatic Sea. Also, the refinery in Germany is connected to that pipeline here in Austria. In addition, we have some equity production, which makes about 10% of the feed. And then in Romania, at the refinery there, we are quite integrated, with more than 70% coming into equity production from oil production in Romania.

‌Jet fuel

Question by Michele Della Vigna - Goldman Sachs:

Jet fuel availability is certainly a concern going into the summer. Austria actually seems to be better prepared for it than some of the other European countries. What is your view on the visibility, especially as we go into the late summer, on the availability of jet fuel and the potential for dealing with a relatively low amount of inventory days?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

It is indeed like this in Austria. We can say, at the moment, we can supply all our contract customers with jet fuel, also including the required mandate of 2% renewable fuel addition, the SAF addition. This covers the big airports, of course, in Austria and Munich, as well as Bucharest and a couple of smaller airports. So, our contract customers are covered, because we are able to produce actually most of these volumes ourselves.

In general, we do see in particular in Europe, but also globally, that there is a shortage of jet fuel. There was a significant amount of jet fuel coming out of the Strait going to Asia, while Europe also remains heavily dependent on jet fuel imports. So, from an OMV perspective, we can supply and provide security of supply to all our contract customers, and we naturally try to maximize our business around the airports that I just mentioned earlier.

‌Chemicals

‌European market

Question by Oleg Galbur - ODDO BHF:

While you mentioned that NOVA Chemicals is benefiting and is expected to positively contribute to OMV's results, I hope you can tell us how Borealis results are being affected by the current market environment, which is

characterized by significantly high feedstock costs?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

We have seen very significant price corrections in the European market. Monomers - ethylene and propylene - are quite short and there is significant demand. We have seen modest price increases in ethylene and propylene in

March, but then a significant step up of EUR 400/t to EUR 500/t in April. The utilization of our crackers, the Borealis and OMV crackers together, was about 91%, which is more than 10 percentage points higher than the European

average utilization rate. This is because the crackers are either integrated into OMV refineries or benefit from lighter feedstock on the Borealis side. So, that is situation for olefins. On polyolefins, we have seen that the contract prices have gone up. In addition, there has been some closing of the gaps between spot and contract prices, which is

typically an indicator of tight markets. Now, in April, the prices increased again, by around EUR 1,000/t for

polyethylene and polypropylene. There are significant price increases reflecting the tight market environment. We also continue to see good demand levels, allowing Borealis, and now Borouge International, to take advantage of better market conditions.

‌US market

Question by Joshua Stone - UBS:

On the chemical margin outlook, what are you seeing in the U.S. market in particular, given your now ownership of NOVA, and also regarding Baystar?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

With NOVA being in there with 50%, and with Baystar, which was previously part of the Borealis results, these entities are benefiting from the current crisis in the Middle East. What we have seen is that because of the closure of the Strait, it is not only oil and gas products that were affected, but also a significant amount of chemical products came through there, in particular polyolefin products. There was also a significant amount of naphtha flowing through, meaning chemical feedstock, which mainly went to Asia for production there.

As a result, we are seeing a shortage on this, and in our view, the markets for Borouge International products have switched from being somewhat long to being short now. With this, we have seen significant price increases across the globe, therefore also in the U.S. the prices for the products have gone up, and the margins for those products in the U.S. have expanded. What is slightly different in the U.S. is that gas prices on Henry Hub, which are also a

reference for ethane pricing, have not moved as much as gas prices in other regions. We will benefit from this with better margins. Also, the Baystar joint venture will be able to benefit from these better margins, and there is the potential opportunity that a global shortfall in volumes can then be supplied from some of this production.

‌Margins

Question by Ramachandra Kamath - Barclays:

As polyolefin prices have recovered strongly at the end of the first quarter, feedstock tied to polyolefin rates has also been rising. In a market where supply drives pricing and volumes are softer, how should we assess the effect on the margins?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

Maybe let me expand on this a little bit, because it is an integrated supply chain. You have olefin and polyolefin prices. What we have seen in March was that naphtha prices went up quite significantly and feedstock prices rose sharply, while at the same time, olefin prices were, to a large degree, locked in through price discussions at the beginning of the month. This changed significantly now in April, because olefin prices have risen strongly. They

increased by EUR 400/t to EUR 500/t and that is leading to a significant margin expansion. Polyolefin prices reacted somewhat faster already in March, and margins expanded there. In the full month of April, we have now seen additional price increases in polyolefins with further margin expansion. At the moment, we continue to see a good demand, and it is more a question now of supply capability to make sure to be able to supply that demand. Borouge

International is in a very strong position, with assets distributed quite well globally and more than 70% of production in an advantaged feedstock position.

As I also said during the presentation, this is the situation at the moment. We will see how this develops going

forward. I want to highlight again that the EBITDA margins and the margin capability of Borouge International are really exceptional. Borouge International is significantly ahead of its competitors, with margins more similar to a margin level seen in specialty chemicals. We anticipate this advantage to continue, driven by the combination of a technology platform that gives innovative products with price premiums plus the privileged feedstock position.

‌Borouge International

Question by Michele Della Vigna - Goldman Sachs:

On Borouge, I was wondering, is there a simple way to think about how the new ownership and reported structure would affect net income? Let's say how much higher or lower that would be if the new reporting structure had already been in place in Q1 for OMV.

Answer by Reinhard Florey:

It is not that difficult. So far, what we have shown in net profit was a fully consolidated net profit of Borealis, which also included the net profit from our 36% participation in Borouge. Now, in the net profit attributable to

stockholders, we of course only showed 75% of Borealis, meaning 75% of the fully consolidated result, as 25% related to ADNOC minorities. With Borouge International, the situation changes. We now consolidate at equity,

which means recognizing 50% of the net profit of Borouge International. This consists of 50% of Borealis, so a little bit less Borealis than before, 50% of Borouge, which is more than we had previously, and 50% of NOVA, which is

completely new. This plays a role because, in the current environment, NOVA is operating in a positive business environment, and therefore we can expect a good contribution from NOVA for the rest of the year.

‌Borouge 4

Question by Ramachandra Kamath - Barclays:

Has the current situation in the Middle East impacted the Borouge 4 ramp-up phase? Can you comment on the feedstock pricing mechanism, particularly for Borouge 4?

Answer by Alfred Stern:

On the Borouge 4 ramp-up, I can explain that throughout the year, there are multiple production assets involved, and the plan has been, and continues to be, that over the course of the year we bring the different assets online, so that all assets are up and running before the end of the year. As is the case with large-scale assets like these, there can always be some delays, but at this stage our plan stays the same. I can also report that the first asset, in the XLPE line, has already been brought online.

On feedstock, I want to emphasize again that about 70% of the feedstock of Borouge International is based on advantaged feedstock, and this will continue going forward. There will be some modifications to the Borouge assets on the way forward but these will be compensated for the additional capacities that are coming on stream with

Borouge 4.

D I S C L A I M E R

This document contains forward looking statements. Forward looking statements usually may be identified by the use of terms such as "outlook", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "target", "objective", "estimate", "goal", "may", "will" and similar terms, or by their context. These forward-looking statements are based on beliefs, estimates and assumptions currently held by and information currently available to OMV. By their nature, forward

looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will or may occur in the future and are outside the control of OMV. Consequently, the actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Therefore, recipients of this report are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Neither OMV nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any of the forward-looking statements contained in this document. OMV disclaims any obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, revised assumptions and expectations and future developments and events. This document does not contain any recommendation or invitation to buy or sell securities in OMV.