(Refiles to replace extra "2011" in second quote with "2012")
VIENNA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Demand for energy should start recovering at the end of next year and return to healthy levels in 2011 and 2012, a top executive at Austrian oil and gas group OMV said.
Helmut Langanger, OMV's Exploration and Production chief, said he did not expect a sector recovery to come in the first half of next year.
"I think that we will emerge bit by bit from the trough and that from the end of 2010 ... we will see an upswing again," he told media at a briefing late on Wednesday.
"In 2011, 2012 we will be back to healthy demand."
A slump in demand due to the worst global downturn since the 1930s has hit earnings at energy companies worldwide.
OMV, which has among the biggest energy operations in emerging Europe, reported an 83 percent drop in second-quarter core earnings last month with its downstream business falling into the red.
Langanger stuck to OMV's target of producing 350,000 to 360,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2010. OMV's chief executive and analysts have said the target is tough.
Langanger added that OMV was still at a "standstill" with Iran over the South Pars project. He told Reuters earlier this year that OMV was prepared to walk away from the giant offshore gas field project rather than invest too quickly.
OMV has resisted Iranian pressure to push ahead with investment and has said the political environment and financial framework must be right before it would proceed with its planned investment in Phase 12 of the field. (Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Hans Peters)