Petroplus Completes Purchase of Coryton Refinery

Petroplus Holdings AG (SWX:PPHN) today announced that it has
completed its purchase of the Coryton refinery located on the Thames
Estuary in the United Kingdom. The Coryton refinery has a crude
throughput capacity of 172,000 barrels per day and can run up to an
additional 70,000 barrels per day of other feedstocks. Coryton's major
units include atmospheric and vacuum distillation units, a catalytic
reformer, a fluid catalytic cracking unit, as well as several
hydrotreating units.

Thomas D. O'Malley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Petroplus, commented on the acquisition, "With the Coryton refinery,
we are adding an additional 55% of refining capacity while increasing
the overall complexity of our refining system. This facility is well
situated within our North Sea Refining system and should provide for
synergistic opportunities with our existing refining and processing
assets in Belgium and the UK. The addition of Coryton is a tremendous
achievement for our company and we are very pleased to add a refinery
of its size and capabilities, along with a highly qualified workforce,
to our company."

Commenting on the financing for the acquisition, Karyn F. Ovelmen,
Chief Financial Officer of Petroplus, said, "The purchase, including
inventory and other adjustments totaled approximately $1.6 billion,
was financed with proceeds from our issuance of corporate bonds, cash
on hand and drawings under our working capital facilities. After the
financing for this acquisition, our debt outstanding is approximately
$1.6 billion and our total debt-to-total capitalization is about 42%."

Petroplus Holdings AG is the largest independent refiner and
wholesaler of petroleum products in Europe. Petroplus focuses on
refining and currently owns and operates five refineries across
Europe: the Coryton refinery on the Thames Estuary in the United
Kingdom, the Ingolstadt refinery in Ingolstadt, Germany, the Belgium
Refining Company refinery in Antwerp, Belgium, the Cressier refinery
in the canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland, and the Teesside refinery in
Teesside, United Kingdom. The refineries have a combined throughput
capacity of approximately 625,000 bpd.