The recent situation will have no impact on lubricants and asphalt production.
The decision to temporarily halt production will have no impact on relationships with customers and the refinery will use its reserves to supply fuel to customers.

ardubice , January 14, 2011 - After a thorough assessment of the current economic situation, the Pardubice refinery will start its temporary production shutdown one month earlier than previously planned. This decision was reached by the company's management as a result of the current negative changes to refinery margins. As follow-up to this decision, petroleum refinery operations will be shutdown as of January 20 th and the company will also be shutting down its medium distillate hydrodesulfurization unit. The plant will continue with its production of lubricants and asphalt products.

The refinery's decision to go ahead with this temporary shutdown will have no impact on the company's relationships with its customers. The company will be using its product reserves to satisfy customer demand for diesel, biodiesel and gasoline, while working together with its sister companies in the Unipetrol Group.

The refinery finds it necessary to do all that it can to minimize and mitigate any further financial losses. One such step has been the decision to move the scheduled production shutdown forward by one month.

This temporary measure will also impact a small number of the company's employees. Some of them will be conducting necessary equipment inspections and scheduled maintenance during the shutdown, while others will be on mandatory vacation leave.

PARAMO, a.s., a member of the UNIPETROL/PKN ORLEN group, processes crude oil into refinery and asphalt products and produces lubricating and process oils, including follow-up and auxiliary products,. The refinery also purchases and processes oil hydrogenates and hydrocrackates. The intermediate products are used by the refinery to produce base and lubricating oils with very low sulfur contents. The company employs 668 people.

Contact:
Jana Iovlevová
Spokesperson
PARAMO, a. s.
GSM: +420 736 507 439
E-mail: iovlevova@paramo.cz​