DuPont awards Petrom with its 2010 Safety Award

• Petrom is the first Romanian company to be awarded by DuPont
• The winning project was implemented in Petrom’s refineries

BUCHAREST, Romania — DuPont has announced the five winners of the 2010 DuPont Safety Awards. The awards, now in their ninth edition, recognize outstanding initiatives towards workplace safety enhancements and accident prevention in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Each year DuPont presents the awards to five individuals, companies, or organizations selected as the most deserving in one of five award categories. This year one of the 5 recipients was Petrom in the category of Sustainable Business Impact.

Petrom, the largest oil and gas producer in south-eastern Europe, advancing its goal of zero incidents for the refineries, embarked upon a broad-based program to increase awareness and create a stronger safety culture. Elements of the program, which was implemented in Petrom’s refineries, included engaging the entire management team at each refinery and creating a safety organization leadership structure; establishing transparent decision processes and incentives to motivate employees to participate in and support safety projects; building a network of safety champions to drive change; and providing training and skill-building for safety champions and others; developing communications necessary to support all efforts. The program has significantly increased safety awareness and created a culture where employees engage actively and contribute to safety solutions.

"We are very pleased to recognize Petrom for its achievements and commitment to safety excellence and the welfare of its employees," said Koen Van Neyghem, president, DuPont Sustainable Solutions, EMEA. "Like DuPont, Petrom believes that safety is good business, that employees work better and harder in safe environments, and that all workers deserve to go home safely at the end of the day."

"We are honoured to be the first Romanian company whose efforts in ensuring a safety working environment were recognized through a prestigious award like DuPont Safety Award. We strongly believe that all workplaces and processes must be safe for all our employees and partners as well as for the environment and we’ll continue to pursue our zero incidents goal", stated Neil Antony Morgan, member of Petrom Executive Board, responsible for Refining.

All programs, projects and contributions submitted for the DuPont Safety Awards are reviewed and judged by a panel of impartial experts distinguished in their respective fields. They evaluate entries for design, scope, results, innovation, risk, and the ability to be replicated.

Other categories recipients of this year awards were:

• Isastur (Spain) for Innovative Approach,
• PSA Peugeot Citroën (France) for Performance Improvement,
• Reliance Industries Ltd. (India) for Visible Management Commitment,
• Titan Group (Greece) for Cultural Evolution.

Since 2001, DuPont has sponsored the DuPont Safety Awards to encourage workplace safety initiatives in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and to promote safety in other areas of life as well. Drawing upon 200 years of experience and accumulated knowledge in safety, engineering, environmental stewardship, and operations management, DuPont offers collaborative consulting, training, and solutions-driven technologies that can help organizations transform their workplaces and work cultures to become safer, more efficient, and environmentally sustainable. Additional information about the DuPont Safety Awards can be found at
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DuPont (www.dupont.com) is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 90 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.

Petrom Group
Petrom Group is the largest oil and gas group in South-eastern Europe, with activities in the business segments of Exploration and Production, Refining and Marketing as well as Gas and Power. The Group consolidated its position on the oil market in South-eastern Europe following a far-reaching modernization and efficiency increase process whereas investments accounted for more than EUR 5 bn during the last five years.

In Romania and Kazakhstan, the Group exploits proved oil and gas reserves of approximately 854 mn boe (in Romania 823 boe) and has a maximum annual refining capacity of 8 mn tons.

On the distribution market of oil products, Petrom Group is present through a network of approximately 800 filling stations, operated under two brands, Petrom and OMV. The activity in Romania is performed through OMV Petrom Marketing, 100% owned by Petrom. OMV Petrom Marketing operates 546 filling stations, out of which 389 are Petrom and 157 OMV. The Group also owns an international network of approximately 250 filling stations, located in Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria and Serbia.

For the Group’s sustainable development, its strategy includes business diversification by approaching the power market. In this context, Petrom is building a 860 MW gas fired power plant at Brazi and acquired the project for the construction of a 45 MW wind park.

In 2009 the Group’s turnover was EUR 3,795 mn, EBITDA was EUR 969 mn. OMV, the leading energy group in Central and South-eastern Europe holds a 51.01% share in Petrom. OMV is active in 12 Central European countries in its Refining and Marketing business segment and in 16 countries on four continents in Exploration and Production. Ministry of Economy holds 20.64% of Petrom shares, Property Fund SA holds 20.11%, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2.03% and 6.21% is free float on Bucharest Stock Exchange.