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) 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.