Petrom"s Profit Falls 38% in H1

Petrom Bucharest posted a turnover of 5,433,777,397 RON in the first six months of 2007, down by 14% from the same period last year, mainly due to lower selling price and lower quantity sold in the refining and marketing segment (because of turnaround in Arpechim). This was partly offset by the higher turnover generated by the Gas Business. Net profit amounted to 887,516,237 RON, down by 38% from H1 2006, as operating income fell 47%.

Mariana Gheorghe, CEO of Petrom: "The results recorded in the first 6 months of the year are consistent with our forecast. The strong appreciation of the RON against the USD, but also to some extent lower crude oil prices adversely impacted in turnover and in profit.

Fixed assets rose by 5.6% to 13.823 million RON, influenced by the significant investments ioane lei, fiind înfluenţate în principal de investiţiile semnificative efectuate în trimestrul al doilea al anului.

Investments amounted to 1.322 million RON in H1, exceeding by 74% the amount performed in H1 2006. In the second quarter of 2007, investments increased by 144% in comparison with the same period last year and by 40% from Q1/07.

Total oil and gas production in Romania amounted to 35.25 million boe in H1/07 [5% lower than H1/06] due to lower gas volumes resulting from the high pressure in the gas transportation network as well as from some technical difficulties. Domestic oil production is now being stabilized since the beginning of the year as a result of production improvement programs.

Group oil and gas production decreased by 4.4 % to 36.05 million boe [H1/06: 37.73 million boe], due to the decline of the domestic production for oil by 6% and for gas by 3%.

The crude price, refining margins and the US dollar and Euro exchange rates are expected to remain volatile in 2007. In E&P the company will continue the efforts to increase production and decrease production costs.

Petrom has a share capital of 5,664,410,833.5 RON, divided into shares with a face value of 0.1 RON. The company is listed on Tier 1 of the Bucharest Stock Exchange as SNP and has a market capitalization of 30 billion RON (9.6 billion EUR). The majority shareholder is OMV Aktiengesellschaft with 51.01% in Petrom, followed by AVAS (20.63%) and Proprietatea Fund (20.11%).