PRESS RELEASE Malabo – July 1st, 2010   NEXT STEPS FOR THE REFINERY PROJECT The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy is pleased to announce that a decision has been reached regarding the way forward for this project. The next phase will be a 6-8 month Conceptual Design, which will assess in detail a number of the elements of the new refinery that require further definition. As this is a very specialised piece of work, and limited in scope, the Ministry has selected several contractors to bid for the work. The output of this phase will be a fully worked conceptual design package that will form the basis for bids for the lump-sum turnkey Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) phase of the project. At the end of the Conceptual Design Phase, the Ministry will invite all interested parties to submit themselves for pre-qualification for the overall EPC contract, and will go through a selection process based on published criteria to select the shortlist who will be invited to tender. It is anticipated that this will be during the first quarter of 2011.