OMV

Stock performance

History

OMV was founded in 1956 as Österreichische Mineralölverwaltung to take over oil assets that the Soviet Union had controlled in its occupation zone until the 1955 State Treaty restored Austrian sovereignty. In 1968 Austria became the first Western European country to sign a long-term gas supply contract with the USSR, a relationship OMV carried on with Gazprom for more than five decades until it terminated the contract in December 2024. Along the way it bought Romania's Petrom in 2004 and took majority control of the chemicals maker Borealis in 2020.

Business model

OMV produces oil and gas (in Romania, Norway, the Middle East, and elsewhere), runs refineries at Schwechat near Vienna, Burghausen in Germany, and Petrobrazi in Romania, and makes polyolefin plastics through Borealis. In 2025 it agreed with Abu Dhabi's ADNOC to combine Borealis and Borouge into a new Abu Dhabi-listed polyolefins group, part of a strategy to shift earnings from fuels toward chemicals and lower-carbon energy.

Market position

OMV is Austria's largest listed industrial company by revenue and one of Central Europe's leading integrated energy groups, competing with MOL in Hungary and Orlen in Poland. Its shareholders include the Austrian state holding company ÖBAG and ADNOC, which together hold a controlling block.

Country impact

OMV has been central to Austria's energy security for decades, and the Baumgarten gas hub on the Slovak border made Austria a key transit point for Russian gas into Western Europe. The country's heavy dependence on that gas became a major vulnerability after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, forcing OMV to diversify supplies through Norway, LNG, and domestic production.