HAIFA, Israel, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Oil Refineries ("ORL" or the "Company), announced today that as detailed in Section 1.6.15.3 of the Company's Financial Report of 2009, as part of the regular periodic maintenance cycle at the Company facilities, as is typical in the refinery industry, each major facility is shutdown once every several years for between 30 to 45 days for maintenance work, depending on the scope of maintenance work required. Recently, the Company extended the periods between the periodic maintenance to five years from four years.
Under the framework of this program, the Company intends to shutdown major sections of its secondary refinancing facilities (Continuous Catalytic Regeneration unit and Hydrogen units and others), commencing on October 26, 2010 for a period of approximately 45 days and to adjust the level of raw material refining during this period, for the needs and the possibilities to produce semi finished materials.
In order to perform the maintenance work on joint systems, and to achieve cost savings and general optimization, the Group companies Carmel Olefins Ltd. in its facilities for producing polymers and Gadiv Petrochemical Ind. Ltd in its facility for producing aromatics will also perform the maintenance work at the same time. This co-operation can be take place due to the completion of the merger between the Group activities.
The Group Companies are preparing themselves in order to produce and equipped themselves with inventory of products for the shutdown period, in order to enable the delivery of orders to customers during the above-mentioned shutdown period and reduce the impact of the above on the results of the Company.
The above-mentioned details regarding the duration of the maintenance and shutdown of the facilities as well as a possible impact on the Company's results of operations are forward-looking information. The Company estimate on the duration of the shutdown period is based on its maintenance plans and experience in previous occurrences. However, there is no certainty that the maintenance on all the facilities will end during the above-mentioned period, and if the maintenance will last beyond this period, it may have an affect the Company's operations and its revenues. In addition, there is no reassurance as to the magnitude of the impact on the results of the Company's operation, which is depended, among others, on the refining margins and on the markets of Polymers and Aromatics during he shut down period.
ABOUT OIL REFINERIES LTD.
Oil Refineries Ltd. (ORL), located in the bay area of the city of Haifa, operates Israel's largest integrated refining and petrochemical group. It is one of the leading refineries in the Eastern Mediterranean area and integrates, on-site, petrochemical businesses. ORL runs sophisticated and state-of-the-art industrial facilities with a refining capacity of 9.8 million tons of crude oil per year and a Nelson Complexity Index of 7.4, providing a variety of quality products used in industrial operation, transportation, private consumption, agriculture and infrastructure. The Company's petrochemical sector produces Polymers (through its ownership of Carmel Olefins Ltd), Aromatics (through its ownership of Gadiv Petrochemical Industries Ltd), and Lube-Oils (through its ownership of Haifa Basic Oils Ltd). The Company's shares are listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker ORL. For additional information please visit
http://www.orl.co.il/. Company Contact: Investor Relations Contact: Rony Solonicof Ehud Helft / Porat Saar Chief Economist and Head of Investor Relations CCG Israel Tel. (US) 1 646 797 2868 /(Int.) Tel. 972 4 878 8320 972 52 776 3687 Contact IREn@orl.co.il ORL@ccgisrael.com -----------------
Oil Refineries
CONTACT: Company, Rony Solonicof, Chief Economist and Head of Investor
Relations, +972 4 878 8320, IREn@orl.co.il; or Investor Relations Contact,
Ehud Helft / Porat Saar, CCG Israel, (US) +1-646-797-2868, (Int.) +972 52 776
3687, ORL@ccgisrael.com
Web Site: http://www.orl.co.il/
