As a fellow Austrian (and I thought I was the only one who is PO aware...), I know exactly what you mean. I have been repeatedly enraged by Ruttensdorfers claims of plentiful and cheap oil in a not so distant future.

But actually there is a possibility that he genuinely believes this, as OMV has a very interesting record of offsetting decline. They have very few and small fields but alledgedly manage to squeeze them to the last drop, at least if one can trust an article published in the German magazine "Der Spiegel" not so long ago. (They also raved about new technologies such as a new kind of 3D-seismographic)

"Der Spiegel" also hinted that this record of managing to keep up a plateau could give hope to the rest of the industry. However, what they totally forget in my opinion, is that the OMV-operations can't be compared to the majors neither in scale nor in quality.

So Ruttensdorfer might really think all is rosy, at least if he is dumb enough not to look beyond his own company...