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Press ReleaseSource: Energy Allied International
Houston Based Firms Establish Partnership with Petroci to Build State-of-the-Art Refinery in Africa
Monday October 1, 7:00 am ET

The National Oil Company of Cote d'Ivoire in Partnership With Energy Allied International and WCW International Inc. Both of Houston, Texas, to Build, Own and Operate a 60,000 Barrel-Per-Day Refinery
HOUSTON & ABIDJAN, Cote d' Ivoire--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Energy Allied International and WCW International, Inc. of Houston, Texas and Petroci, the National Oil Company of Cote d' Ivoire, announced today that they will partner to build, own and operate a 60,000 barrel-per-day crude oil refining facility and a strategic refined products storage facility in Abidjan. Energy Allied International and WCW International will jointly develop the project and select the engineering, procurement and construction company for the USD 1.4 billion facility. This 250-acre refinery will be among the largest upgrading facilities in Africa. The market study and technical feasibility study for the refinery was completed by The Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR - News) as third party technical expert. Financial advisory services were performed by Taylor-DeJongh. The partnership has been granted the approval to proceed with the engineering and design and will finalize the plans for funding with financial institutions. The project will be led from Energy Allied International's headquarters in Houston, Texas.
This refinery will process 60,000 barrels per day of crude and produce gasoline, jet fuel, diesel oil and butane for sale into West African markets. The process technologies are sophisticated and highly flexible with respect to quality of crude feed, yet proven and in wide spread use. This region is short of the required capacity to produce these refined products and is presently importing from Europe and the Middle East.
His Excellency, President Laurent Gbagbo, of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, said, "This is a direct result of the peace process and the confidence that has been generated in the international and domestic investment community." His Excellency further added, "Our government welcomes this partnership of Energy Allied International and WCW International with Petroci. This signals the resumption of significant major investments in Cote d'Ivoire."
The Minister of Mines and Energy of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, Mr. Emmanuel Leon Monnet, stated, "This refinery will bring state-of-the-art technology and complements the existing refinery operations in our country. Furthermore, it will create many direct and indirect local jobs."
Kassoum Fadika, Petroci Director General, said, "The implementation of this new refinery is a much anticipated next step in our vision to make Abidjan and Cote d'Ivoire a major center for refining and redistribution of high end petroleum products along the West African Atlantic Basin."
"We are very pleased to be participating in the development of this project for the Republic of Cote d' Ivoire and all the people in this region of West Africa. We will bring much needed refining technology and capacity to the region, enabling Petroci to provide countries with clean refined products from local West African crude," said Mike Nassar, Chairman and CEO of Energy Allied International.
"This timely and strategically significant project will utilize state-of-the-art and environmentally sensitive technology and will minimize the dependency of the region on imported petroleum products," commented Chris Wilmot, President and CEO of WCW International.

Contact:
Energy Allied International
Hal Bouknight, 713-589-7220
www.energyallied.com
www.wcwinternational.com
www.taylor-dejongh.com


This NewsTrak report is for the following release:
October 01, 2007 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Houston Based Firms Establish Partnership with Petroci to Build State-of-the-Art Refinery in Africa
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Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire – September 24, 2007

Energy Allied International and WCW International, Inc. of Houston, Texas, USA announced today that they will partner with Petroci, the National Oil Company of Cote d’ Ivoire to build, own and operate a 60,000 barrel per day crude oil refining facility and a strategic refined products storage facility in Abidjan. Energy Allied International and WCW International will jointly develop this project and will have responsibility for providing the engineering, procurement and construction for the US $ 1.4 billion facilities. This 250 acre refinery will be located on a planned industrial site in the Port of Abidjan.

In July, 2007, Energy Allied International and WCW International, Inc. completed a market, and technical feasibility study for these facilities using The Shaw Group (NYSE:SGR) as a third party technical expert. The financial advisory services were performed by Taylor-DeJongh from their Washington DC offices. The very favorable results of the feasibility study were presented by Energy Allied International, Petroci Holding and WCW International, Inc. to His Excellency President Laurent Gbagbo, President of the Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire, on July 24, 2007. The President gave his firm commitment to this strategic development project for Cote d’ Ivoire and granted approval to the joint project development team to proceed with the front end engineering and design (FEED). In parallel with the FEED development, Energy Allied International and WCW International will finalize plans for the funding of the project with financial institutions.

This refinery for Cote d’ Ivoire will process 60,000 barrels per day of West African crude and produce gasoline, jet fuel, diesel oil and butane for sale into West African markets. The process technologies designed into this refinery are sophisticated and highly flexible with respect to quality of crude feed, yet they are proven and in wide spread use in refineries today. This region of West Africa today is short of the required capacity to produce these refined products and is presently importing in significant quantities from Europe and the Middle East. Upon completion in fourth quarter, 2011, this refinery will rank third (3rd) in upgrading capacity of the forty seven (47) refineries currently operating in all of Africa.

His Excellency, President Laurent Gbagbo, of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, says “This refinery is a direct result of the successful conclusion of the peace process and the confidence that has been generated in the international and domestic investment community.” His Excellency further added, “The government of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire welcomes this partnership of Energy Allied International and WCW International with Petroci to implement this important project. This signals the resumption of significant major investments in Cote d’Ivoire.”

The Minister of Mines and Energy of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, Mr. Monnet Leon Emmanuel says, “This refinery will bring state of the art technology and complements the existing refinery operations in our country. Furthermore, the new refinery will create many direct and indirect local jobs, throughout Cote d’Ivoire, from construction, operations, support services and final products marketing.”

Mr. Kassoum Fadika, Petroci Director General says, “The implementation of this new refinery will be a much anticipated next step in our vision to make Abidjan and Cote d’Ivoire a major center for refining and redistribution of high end petroleum products along the West African Atlantic Basin.”

Mr. Mike Nassar, Chief Executive Officer of Energy Allied International says, “We are very pleased to be participating with WCW International and Petroci in the development of this very important project for the Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire and all the people in this region of West Africa. In building this refinery, we will bring much needed refining technology and capacity to the region, enabling Petroci to provide Cote d’ Ivoire and neighboring countries with clean refined products from local West African crude.”

Mr. Chris Wilmot, President and Chief Executive Officer of WCW International says, “This is a timely and strategically significant project, utilizing state of the art and environmentally sensitive technology. This refinery will have a huge impact on Cote d’ Ivoire in terms of jobs creation and minimize the dependency of the sub region on imported petroleum products by refining locally produced crude oil. We salute the vision of His Excellency, President Gbagbo, in supporting the partnership between Petroci, Energy Allied International, and WCW International to effectuate this project.”

This project will be led from Energy Allied International’s headquarters office in Houston, Texas.

Petroci is the National Oil Company of Cote d’ Ivoire, who partners with and manages 28 international oil and gas concessions within the country of Cote d’Ivoire, and markets and distributes refined products within the west Africa region.

Energy Allied International (www.energyallied.com) is a sophisticated international project development company focusing on the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry, including refining and petrochemicals, energy and power generation, biodiesel and biopower businesses in the United States, Middle East and Africa.

WCW International, Inc. (www.wcwinternational.com) is a global engineering, infrastructure project development and consulting company focused on energy, technology, telecommunications, construction and program management projects throughout the United States and Africa.

Taylor-DeJongh (www.taylor-dejongh.com) is a leading independent international merchant banking group that assists multinational clientele in developing, structuring negotiating and financing major capital projects worldwide, with offices in Washington, London and Bahrain.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Hal Bouknight
Energy Allied International
Houston, Texas

+1-713-589-7220

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