- EUR 1.7 million sponsorship for Romania’s first Olympic rowing center - the PETROM Rowing Arena
- OMV Petrom has supported rowing in Romania since 2024, with cumulative sponsorships amounting to EUR 2.7 million
OMV Petrom, the largest integrated energy producer in South-Eastern Europe, is granting a new sponsorship to the Romanian Rowing Federation, worth EUR 1.7 million, for the construction of the PETROM Rowing Arena on Lake Pantelimon – Romania’s first Olympic rowing base. The Arena project, carried out with the support of OMV Petrom and the Pantelimon City Hall, was announced today.
“Romania has world-class rowing champions, but it does not yet have an internationally certified Olympic base. Through this new EUR 1.7 million sponsorship, OMV Petrom contributes to the development of the PETROM Rowing Arena, a project that can bring major international competitions to Romania and support the next generations of athletes. Together with the ‘Energy for Performance’ program, our commitment to rowing reaches EUR 2.7 million,” said Radu Căprău, member of the OMV Petrom Executive Board, responsible for Refining and Marketing.
“The extraordinary results that Romania consistently achieves in rowing are the outcome of the work of athletes, coaches and all those who believe in this sport. For these performances to continue, we need not only extraordinary people, but also infrastructure to match them. The PETROM Rowing Arena is a project that Romanian rowing has been waiting for many years and one that will fundamentally change the way we train and Romania’s capacity to organize international competitions. We thank OMV Petrom for the trust and vision to invest not only in today’s performances, but also in the future of this sport,” said Elisabeta Lipă, President of the Romanian Rowing Federation.
Romania is consistently among the world’s top rowing nations, but it does not have an Olympic course certified according to international standards. The new project addresses this need and complements the investments made in recent years in athlete development, providing the necessary conditions to consolidate performance and attract European and world competitions to Romania.
The PETROM Rowing Arena will be developed with the support of Pantelimon City Hall and will become the first rowing base in Romania built for international certification. The project will be implemented in stages during 2026–2028 and will begin with the development of a platform of approximately 10,000 sqm, the minimum area required for the international accreditation of the base and the organization of major rowing competitions.
The investment for this phase is estimated at approximately EUR 3.2 million, of which EUR 1.7 million comes from OMV Petrom’s sponsorship, while the difference of approximately EUR 1.5 million is provided by the Romanian Rowing Federation.
The development of the PETROM Rowing Arena is the second major initiative supported by OMV Petrom. Since 2024, OMV Petrom has supported the “Energy for Performance” program with EUR 1 million, which aims to identify and develop future generations of Olympic rowing champions. The program supports national selection, athlete training and the equipping of rowing centers with modern equipment, and more than 200 young athletes have already been included in the program..
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About OMV Petrom
OMV Petrom is the largest integrated energy producer in South-Eastern Europe, with annual group hydrocarbon production of approximately 38 million boe in 2025. The Group has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons per year and operates a highly efficient 860 MW gas-fired power plant. On the petroleum products retail market, the Group is present in Romania and neighboring countries through approximately 780 filling stations, under two brands – OMV and Petrom.
OMV Petrom is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with 28.1% of its shares freely traded. At the end of 2025, Romanian shareholders held around 45% of the shares, of which the Romanian state held 20.7%, while 24.4% were held by Romanian pension funds, as well as other Romanian individuals and legal entities. OMV Aktiengesellschaft held 51.2% of OMV Petrom shares, while the remaining 3.7% were held by other foreign investors.
OMV Petrom is one of the largest contributors to the state budget, with more than EUR 48 billion in taxes, duties and dividends paid between 2005 and 2025. During the same period, the company invested approximately EUR 21 billion and allocated around EUR 210 million for the development of communities in Romania, focusing on environmental protection, education, health and local development.
Our commitment to mitigating climate change is reflected in our consistent efforts to reduce emissions, with the long-term objective of achieving net-zero operations by 2050.
About the Romanian Rowing Federation (FRC)
Founded in 1925, the Romanian Rowing Federation has brought Romania, through the performances of its athletes, 40 Olympic medals, including 20 gold, 12 silver and 8 bronze medals.
Since 2017, the Romanian Rowing Federation has led the ranking of sports federation performances in our country, with a record of hundreds of medals won at world and European championships. In 2023 alone, Romanian athletes won 39 medals at international championships: 24 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 6 bronze medals, while Romania qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with 11 crews, an absolute premiere.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Simona Radiș and Ancuța Bodnar became Olympic champions, double European champions in 2022 in both the women’s double sculls (W2x) and women’s eight (W8+), as well as world champions in 2022 in the women’s double sculls (W2x).
In 2022, the athletes were named “Women’s Crew of the Year” at the 2022 World Rowing Awards. The award was granted by World Rowing, the International Rowing Federation. It was the first time in the 20-year history of the World Rowing Awards that such a trophy was won by rowers from Romania.