Published October 21, 2006

Petrom and OMV – active partners in the road education campaign “The Safety Belt Saves Lives

Road police squads and the pilots of the OMV Petrom rally team will deliver the messages of the campaign to the drivers and car passengers
The drivers in 6 large cities of Romania will be “pulled over”
The objective is to convince more and more people to use the safety belt

Petrom and OMV, together with the General Division of the Romanian Police continue the awareness program encouraging the use of the safety belt as an essential measure to save lives and to avoid serious consequences of road accidents.
On October 21, between 11h00-13h00, actions will be simultaneously developed in Bucharest, Sibiu, Timisoara, Iasi, Brasov and Cluj. Thus, squads made up of road police representatives and the pilots of the OMV Petrom rally team will explain the traffic participants the importance of using the safety belt.

“Petrom is a company with a strong commitment towards people. This is the reason why we actively participate in social programs in together with parteners like the General Division of the Romanian Police. The campaign The Safety Belt Saves Lives has already generated positive results and we hope it will lead to the decrease of the number of road accident victims. Educating the traffic participants is an important step in this respect” stated Mariana Gheorghe, CEO of Petrom.

Fine tickets replaced by information

In the six selected cities, the road police squads will be engaged in intense traffic areas where they will pull the drivers over in order to provide them with information regarding the use of the safety belt. The traffic participants will be surprized to see the champions of the OMV Petrom rally team – Titi Aur, Claudiu David, Bogdan Marisca, George Morar, besides the road police representatives. All drivers who will be pulled over will be handed informative and promotional materials reminding the message and the importance of the campaign as well as advice regarding preventive behaviour behind the wheel.

Information regarding the seat belt usage rate in Romania

A survey ordered by OMV and performed by GFK in March 2006, reflects an alarming reality. Thus, there are significant differences between the declarations made by the Romanians regarding the necessity to use the safety belt and the percentage of people who actually use it. Inside the city, most drivers do not wear the safety belt while the passengers on the back seats do not even use it outside the city. 83% of the Romanians declare that they use the seat belt but the practical observations prove that only 43% of the drivers actually use the safety belt. Only 41% of adults seating on the front seats and only 43% of the children seating on the back seats use the safety belt. All these problems are aggravated by the fact that in Romania, a third of the cars are over 15 years old while only one of two cars is appropriately equipped in terms of passengers securing system in case of accident occurance. The number of road accidents with victims has grown exponentially. Thus, in 2004-2005, the number of deceased in road accidents increased from 2.301 to 2.491, when it should have decreased from one year to another.

General 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 around 550 filling stations in Romania. The company also has an international network with 82 filling stations located in Moldavia and Hungary. This network was increased by 178 premium stations in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia-Montenegro, acquired in January 2006. In 2005, the turnover of Petrom was EUR 2,970 million, EBITDA was EUR 766 million. Following the share capital increase, OMV, the leading oil and gas group in Central Europe holds a 51,011% share in Petrom. OMV is active in Refining and Marketing, Exploration and Production, Gas as well as Chemicals in 27 countries on five continents. The Romanian State holds 30,862% of Petrom shares, Property Fund SA holds 9,887%, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2,026% and 6,214% are owned by minority shareholders.

OMV Aktiengesellschaft

With Group sales of EUR 15.6 billion and a workforce of 5,226 employees in 2005, as well as market capitalization of approx. EUR 12 billion, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is Austria’s largest listed industrial company. As the leading oil and gas group in Central Europe, OMV is active in Refining and Marketing (R&M) in 13 countries. In Exploration and Production (E&P) OMV is active in 18 countries on five continents. In the Gas business segment OMV has storage facilities and a 2,000 km long pipeline system, transporting 45 bcm of natural gas annually to countries such as Germany and Italy. OMV holds stakes in integrated chemical and petrochemical plants – 50% in AMI Agrolinz International GmbH and 35% stake in Borealis A/S, one of the world’s leading producers of polyolefin. Other important holdings are: 51% of Petrom SA, 50% of EconGas GmbH, 45% of the BAYERNOIL refining network and 10% of the Hungarian company MOL.
With the acquisition of a majority stake in the Romanian Petrom, OMV has become the largest oil and gas group in Central Europe, with oil and gas reserves of approx. 1.4 billion boe, daily production of around 330,000 boe and an annual refining capacity of 26.4 million metric tons. OMV now has over 2,520 filling stations in 13 countries. The market share of the group in the R&M business segment in the Danube Region is now 20%.
OMV further strengthened its leading position in the European growth belt through the acquisition of 34% of Petrol Ofisi, Turkey´s leading company in the retail and commercial business.
In June 2006, OMV has established the OMV Future Energy Fund, a wholly owned subsidiary to support projects in renewable energy with more than EUR 100 Mio to initiate the change from a pure oil and gas group to an energy group with renewable energy in its portfolio.

OMV: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

OMV is actively committed to the values enshrined in its Code of Conduct. These include a strong sense of responsibility towards the social and natural environment in economically weak regions. OMV works hard to address economic, environmental and social issues related to its operations. Its CSR activities are fully documented in biannual performance reports compiled according to Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.