OREANDA-NEWS. Petrobras' 2012 Sustainability Report is now available, bringing together information on our operational, economic, social and environmental performance last year. Highlights include the investments and operating expenses in environmental protection, which added up to BRL 2.9 billion in 2012, 7 percent more than the previous year. The amount includes environmental management projects and sponsorship for external projects.

Among the results attained by the environmental management projects, the limelight is on the savings of 4000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), or 8.6 million gigajoules (GJ) of energy, with investments of BRL 58 million in energy efficiency projects. Among the initiatives that were deployed was the installation of a building monitoring system that allows power consumption to be monitored and optimized in the main occupied buildings. Another result is the volume of water reused in the year, which reached 23.5 billion liters, representing 12 percent of the total fresh water used in the period and an increase of about 9 percent compared to 2011. This amount of water is sufficient to supply a city of 550,000 inhabitants for a year.

Other highlights are the investments of BRL 2.2 billion in Research and Development (R&D). We also invested BRL 586 million in Brazilian science and technology universities and institutions, an amount earmarked for R&D, technician and researcher training, and for laboratory infrastructure enhancement. We ended 2012 with 49 research and development thematic networks, involving over a hundred universities and research institutions throughout Brazil.

The publication also addresses our main contributions to society. Through the National Oil and Natural Gas Industry Mobilization Program (Prominp), in 2012, we invested BRL 51 million in training about 18,000 people in activities related to oil and natural gas industry in Brazil.

Insofar as sponsorships are concerned, BRL 552 million were earmarked for more than 1500 social, environmental, cultural and sports projects in Brazil and in several other countries where Petrobras has operations. The year was also marked by the launch of new public selections for sponsoring environmental, social and cultural projects, in which we will make the largest investments of all editions. In total, BRL 145 million will be allocated to projects selected by the Petrobras Development & Citizenship Program, BRL 102 million to projects under the Petrobras Environmental Program, and BRL 67 million to Petrobras Cultural Program projects.

"At the end of each cycle, the Sustainability Report becomes an important management tool, when we analyze what has been published based on indicators and, thus, identify opportunities for improvement," says Petrobras' manager for Social Responsibility Performance Assessment, Sue Wolter Vianna.

The Sustainability Report is produced annually with the goal of providing our stakeholders information about the corporate performance and strategy aimed at sustainable development. The report is aligned with the latest guidelines set by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the leader in setting parameters for reports of this type. It also reports on the progress that has been made against the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, which Petrobras has been a signatory to since 2003.