Abu Dhabi, 14th June,2006(WAM)-- The Abu Dhabi NationalOil Company (ADNOC) held here last night its annual Health, Safety andEnvironment (HSE) award distribution ceremony.

The ceremony was held under the patronage of Yousef Omeir bin Yousef,ADNOC Chief Executive Officer.

The ADNOC HSE Awards were initiated in 1997 to recognize outstanding achievementsby employees and affiliated contractors of the ADNOC Group Companies inthe areas of Health, Safety & Environment.

In an inaugural speech read on his behalf by Abdulla Nasser Al SuwaidiADNOC Deputy CEO, bin Yousef said:" Under the wise leadership of the president H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin ZayedAl Nahyan, and following the directives of H.H. General Sheikh MohamedBin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commanderof the UAE Armed Forces, ADNOC and its Group of Companies have exertedtremendous efforts aimed at the protection and preservation of the environment".

He added that ADNOC, in record time, managed to realize its visionto become the HSE leader in the Gulf region, thereby meeting the higheststandards in the oil and gas industry worldwide.

The Group , he said, adhered strongly to its cornerstone objectives ofensuring no harm to employees and local communities, protecting theenvironment and moving towards zero flaring, optimizing the use of resources,and playing a leading role in promoting best practice in the Group's industries.

"Our corporate lost time injury frequency (LTIF) of 0.31 injuries permillion man-hours worked is the lowest we have ever achieved. This issignificantly better than the industry average and it will be challengingto improve on this in future years. Five of our companies did not haveany lost time injuries in 2005 and one of these companies has now completedmore than 12 years of work without a single LTI.".

Bin Yousef acknowledges however that the group experiencedsix fatalities in 2005 and described this loss as unacceptable.

"Group Companies must further strive to generate a safety culture andcommunicate to all employees and contractors that shortcuts and unsafebehaviour will not be tolerated. We must not rest until we have achievedour goal of zero work-related injuries"The ADNOC HSE Awards are open to employees of ADNOC Group Companies aswell as contractors providing services to ADNOC Group companies. Awardsubmissions are accepted for work that has already been achieved or completedin the specific award year. Each application is submitted under a specificcategory. The Health category covers occupational health improvementsto the working environment or behavior and lifestyle initiatives for staffleading to better personal health, fitness and hygiene. The safety categorycovers changes to behavior, procedures, design, and operation of plantor processes that reduce risk and raise safety standards. The categoryof Environment relates to activities that help protect and conserve thenatural environment and minimize the impact of ADNOC Group activities.

Projects or initiatives that demonstrate leadership or improvement inoverall HSE performance are incorporated in the HSE Performance category.

All applications go through a 2 phase judging process. The first roundof judging is completed by a third party consultant who conducts a preliminaryscreening of the applications. The top entries in each category are carriedforward to a second round of judging. The 2nd round of judging involvesthe ADNOC Directors and the CEO reviewing and confirming the final selections.

Applications are judged on the quality of their submission, how they havedemonstrated good performance in a particular area of HSE, transferabilityof knowledge to other areas of the ADNOC Group, reputation enhancementand innovation.

The Awards provide tangible evidence of ADNOC's commitment to HSE andare a key element in the ongoing objective to promote HSE amongst companyemployees and contractors. The Awards program is designed to motivatecompanies, teams and individuals to investigate and initiate activitiesthat are beneficial to the health and safety of employees and the public,and the protection of the environment in which they operate.