Third-quarter results published in late October and early November by oil companies operating in Libya offer little cause for optimism concerning the future of the conflict-ravaged crude producer. US oil firm Occidental and Austria’s OMV each reported write-downs to which the poor performance of their Libya businesses contributed. Several other companies reported zero Libyan output for Q3, and few offered anything positive on the potential for a future turnaround.
Occidental reported a third-quarter pre-tax impairment of $3.4bn, most of it from its assets in Libya and Iraq (MEES, 30 October). The company reported overall Q3 losses of $2.6bn, compared to profits of $1.2bn for the equivalent period of 2014, while revenues dropped from $3.6bn to $2.1bn. (CONTINUED - 2152 WORDS)
