Austrian energy company OMV has reported lower upstream production due to ongoing security problems in Libya and Yemen.

In its first quarter results, announced on 18 May, OMV said the company’s total daily production of oil, natural gas liquids (NGL) and gas was the equivalent of 303,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil.

This is 3 per cent lower than production during the first quarter of 2014.

OMV said the drop was driven by production shut-ins in Libya due to security issues. It announced that it had scaled back its investment programme to reflect the unpredictability of its Libyan production and the decline in global oil prices.

Company profits have more-than halved, with earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) dropping to just €228m ($320m) in the first quarter of 2015, down from €675m in the first quarter of 2014.

“The Group’s performance… was weighed down by the substantial decrease in oil prices and the ongoing security issues in Libya and Yemen,” said CEO Gerhard Roiss in a statement.

OMV announced that production in Libya and Yemen is expected to be affected by poor security conditions for the rest of 2015.

Speaking on a conference call, Jaap Huijskes, OMV’s head of exploration and production, said the company did not expect production in Libya to resume this year and said the force majeure declared in April in Yemen would stay in place for six months.

Excluding Libya and Yemen, OMV expects total production for 2015 to average the equivilant of approximately 300,000 b/d.