OMV

OMV is one of the few companies in the benchmark that has committed to stopping its oil and gas exploration for energy use by 2050. OMV has also committed to minimising its use of offsets to reach its climate targets. Nevertheless, the company needs to commit to more significant transition action beyond 2030 to ensure it achieves its climate targets.

OMV is one of the few companies in this benchmark to report its capital expenditure (CapEX) on carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) technologies. With a 100% score, OMV shows the best performance of the companies assessed. Moreover, OMV has committed to investing USD 7.9 billion towards low-carbon businesses between 2022 and 2027. Of this, the company has allocated 11% to emissions reduction initiatives, primarily carbon capture and storage (CCS). Although this is promising, this investment only represents 40% of OMV’s total reported CapEX in 2022.

OMV’s locked-in scope 3 emissions are expected to exceed its 1.5°C carbon budget by more than 10% between 2022 and 2050. Moreover, OMV’s scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions intensity is projected to slightly increase over the next five years. To align with its 1.5°C pathway, OMV needs to decrease its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions intensity by 4% annually between 2022 and 2027.

OMV has integrated an internal carbon price into its sustainability reporting. The company is using an internal carbon price of USD 30.5 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) until 2025 and will be using a price of USD 42.7 per tCO2e thereafter. However, this carbon price is too low and it is not clear if it is integrated into the company’s 2030 transition strategy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) 1.5°C scenario expects advanced economies’ carbon price to reach USD 75 per tCO2e by 2025. OMV should adopt this carbon price and also integrate it into its 2030 transition strategy and its scenario analysis in order to guide future transition decisions.

In 2022, OMV secured USD 2.8 million in revenue from its manufacturing of advanced biofuels. This represents 0.4% of its total 2022 revenue. To align with its 1.5°C pathway, OMV needs to significantly increase the proportion of its revenue from low-carbon products. For instance, through its partnership agreement with Austrian Airlines, OMV has the opportunity to significantly increase its low-carbon revenue through the sale of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs).

By 2030, OMV plans to develop its carbon capture and storage (CCS) capacity to 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (tCO2). An example of a company project initiated to help achieve this aim is C2PAT, a joint project between Lafarge, VERBUND, OMV and Borealis that aims to capture 700,000 tCO2 annually from Lafarge’s cement plant in Mannersdorf by 2030. The captured carbon dioxide, when combined with green hydrogen, can be transformed into renewable chemicals and value-added plastics. Between 2022 and 2027, OMV has allocated 11% of its low-carbon CapEX to neutralisation measures, including CCS. This equates to around USD 848 million.

OMV is committed to becoming a net-zero business by 2050 across its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions along its whole value chain. OMV also has interim targets to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and by more than 60% by 2040. Further, OMV is targeting a reduction in its scope 3 emissions of 20% by 2030 and 50% by 2040, compared to 2019. By 2040, OMV is also targeting a reduction of 50% in the carbon intensity of its energy supply compared to 2019.

OMV is shifting its focus towards its gas and chemical sectors. It has committed to end its oil and gas production for energy use by 2050. To achieve this, OMV is planning to decrease its oil and gas production and reduce its crude distillation throughput before 2030. OMV is also investing significantly in electric vehicle (EV) charging. The company aims to establish a net CCS storage capacity of around 5 million tCO2 per year by 2030.

OMV has committed USD 7.9 billion to low-carbon investment between 2022 and 2027, which it has allocated to various activities, including CCS and decreasing its fossil fuel sales and refining throughput. The company is also investing in its manufacturing of biogas and biofuels. Since 2022, OMV has been supplying Austrian Airlines with SAFs. OMV is aiming to further increase its sales of SAFs from 2,000 million tonnes in 2022 to more than 700,000 million tonnes per year by 2030.

OMV has implemented a new remuneration policy which incentivises reaching environmental, social and governance targets in employee annual bonuses and long-term incentive plans. In recent years, OMV has invested significantly in its own scope 1 and 2 emissions through the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and investment in wind energy and green hydrogen electrolysis. OMV has also started the development of two geothermal projects in Austria and Germany. By 2030, OMV is also aiming to achieve ten terawatt hours of geothermal energy to reduce the company’s emissions footprint.

OMV has set an ambitious net-zero target but is currently not on track to meet this target. OMV is expected to exceed its 1.5°C carbon budget by at least 10%. Although the company has committed to stop oil and gas production for energy use by 2050, it has not disclosed significant actions beyond 2030 that will allow it to realise this target. Moreover, OMV’s omission of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) from its emissions reporting is not conducive to its plans of becoming a net-zero company by 2050 across its value chain.

The company commits to engaging in social dialogue with workers and unions. It also discloses the categories of stakeholders it engages with on a just transition, including employees, communities and suppliers. However, no evidence was found to demonstrate the company’s ongoing social dialogue and meaningful engagement with affected stakeholders. No evidence was found of the company undertaking just transition planning to mitigate the social impacts of the transition on workers, affected stakeholders and its business relationships. Additionally, no evidence was found to demonstrate the company’s engagement in social dialogue and with stakeholders in just transition planning.

The company has a commitment to create and support access to green and decent jobs as part of the low-carbon transition. Furthermore, it discloses the actions it takes to create jobs, including expansion into renewable energy and recycling, with associated jobs. The company has a commitment to re- and up-skill workers and stakeholders affected by the low-carbon transition and discloses the actions it takes in this regard. For instance, it is expanding training programmes and offers apprenticeships and internships to students. Furthermore, the company discloses the measures it takes to embed equality of opportunity for women and vulnerable groups in these actions. It does this through programmes that offer technical training to more women, and is making efforts to help increase access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) training to young women and girls. However, no relevant disclosure was found of the company having a process for identifying skills gaps for workers and affected stakeholders in the context of the low-carbon transition.

No relevant disclosure was found to show if the company identifies impacts of the low-carbon transition on social protection for workers and affected stakeholders, nor how it contributes to social protection. Additionally, no evidence was found that the company expects its business relationships to contribute to the social protection of their workers and affected stakeholders. No relevant disclosure was found to show how the company identifies any misalignment of its lobbying activities with policies and regulations that support the just transition, nor of the measures it takes to address misalignment. Furthermore, no evidence was found that the company lobbies for policies and regulations for green and decent job creation; retention, education and reskilling; and social protection for workers.

The company commits to respecting human rights and the ILO fundamental rights at work, and it expects its business relationships to respect the ILO fundamental rights at work. However, the company can strengthen its disclosure on its human right’s due diligence process.

The company commits to respecting the health and safety of its workers and expects the same commitment of its business relationships. Furthermore, the company has a public commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and discloses some information about the diversity of its workforce. However, the company can strengthen its performance and disclosure on living wages and working hours.

The company commits to protecting personal data. However, no evidence was found of the company having a privacy statement regarding the collection, sharing and access to personal data. While the company discloses its global tax strategy, no relevant disclosure was found of the corporate income tax it pays in each relevant jurisdiction. The company does have a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it includes corresponding clauses in its business relationship contracts. The company can strengthen its disclosure on some ethical business topics, such as lobbying and political engagement.