Modern IT infrastructure as a major driver for development

• Petrom will invest around 35 million Euro in 2006 to modernize its IT infrastructure
• New IT infrastructure to support business and finance processes

Petrom, the largest oil and gas producer in South Eastern Europe, is significantly investing in the modernization of its IT infrastructure. Until the end of 2006, Euro 35 million will sustain this far-reaching program which started in January 2005. “Our challenge is to create an IT infrastructure supporting business and new finance processes to meet the requirements of the capital market. IT is one of the major drivers to turn Petrom to Western European standards”, stated Mr. Reinhard Pichler, CFO of Petrom.

So far, already almost 3000 working places were installed with state of the art PCs, equipped with internet access and E-mail. In addition, modern printing equipment was implemented and an Internet Protocol telephony system, Voice over IP, was introduced. This means basically that separated voice and data networks are merged into a single network and thereby the operational efficiency is improved and communication costs can be reduced.

The roll out of the new IT infrastructure started in offices in Bucharest and Ploiesti. Currently the modernization is in process in the refineries in Arpechim and Petrobrazi and the roll out plan for further branches is ready to be implemented.

A standardized Petrom wide IT concept requires a central data management. Therefore a central data center in a secure environment was established. The centralization of the servers and standardization of the business applications lead to higher data quality, increased speed, higher availability and lower costs.

To achieve these complex tasks the high performing project team consisted of skilled Petrom IT employees, OMV experts, as well as international and Romanian consultants. Petrom employees play an important role for process reengineering and planning, whereas local Romanian service providers made significant contributions to the implementation.

The fast development of the Romanian IT market is also reflected in the establishment of Petrom’s Wide Area Network (WAN). One single service provider will provide the whole network in Romania for Petrom. This will provide fast, reliable and cost efficient data transfer between branches and headquarter including the financial service center.

“The new IT Infrastructure will lead to a totally new quality of communication and way of cooperation between different business units and departments of Petrom. First of all the communication is possible in a much faster way and more intensively. This can be seen in the increase of the average daily e-mail traffic at Petrom. The number of E-Mails has been multiplied several times to reach daily traffic of around 50.000 E-Mails with fast growing trend. But even more important is the new IT Infrastructure as basis for new business applications in order to optimize and improve the core business activities and financial processes”, stated Mr. Christian Ogris, CIO of Petrom.

Background Information
Petrom SA
Petrom is the largest Romanian oil and gas group, with activities in the business segments of Exploration and Production, Refining and Petrochemicals, as well as Sales and Marketing. Petrom has estimated oil and gas reserves of 1 billion boe, refining capacity of 8 million metric tons and 600 filling stations. In 2004 the sales revenue of Petrom was EUR 2,143 million, EBITDA was EUR 28 million. Since December 2004 OMV, the leading oil and gas group in Central Europe holds a 51% share in Petrom. OMV is active in Refining and Marketing, Exploration and Production, Gas as well as Chemicals in 28 countries on five continents. The Romanian state holds 40.74% of Petrom shares, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2.03% and 6.23% are owned by minority shareholders.