News Release

New Management Team, Led by Tom O'Malley, to Assume Senior Management of Petroplus, European Refiner

2006-060pc

Rotterdam, the Netherlands - Petroplus International B.V. ("Petroplus") announced today that the supervisory board of its parent, RIVR Acquisition B.V. ("RIVR"), has unanimously approved the appointment of Thomas D. O’Malley as the new Chief Executive Officer of Petroplus and Chairman of its Executive Board. Mr. O’Malley had been the Chairman and CEO of Premcor Inc. prior to its acquisition by Valero in September 2005. Prior to Premcor, Mr. O’Malley had been the Chairman and CEO of Tosco Corporation before its acquisition by Phillips Petroleum Company in 2001. Mr. O’Malley will be joined on the Executive Board of Petroplus by several key executives from his former Premcor management team; Karyn Ovelmen as Chief Financial Officer, Michael Gayda as General Counsel and Bruce Jones as Executive Vice President, including responsibility for Environmental, Health and Safety.


Commenting on the appointment of Mr. O’Malley, Pierre Lapeyre and David Leuschen of Riverstone Holdings LLC, majority shareholder of Petroplus, "We are delighted to welcome Tom O’Malley as the new CEO of Petroplus. He and his team bring a wealth of refining industry knowledge, operating capability, and capital markets experience that will certainly benefit the Company as it continues to grow. This decision was arrived at jointly with our investment partners, Marcel van Poecke and Willem Willemstein, who are the founders and current Chief Executives of Petroplus. Marcel and Willem have done a terrific job to date of building and re-positioning Petroplus following our investment but Tom and his team bring a truly unique capability to accelerate profitable growth at the Company."


As part of the transition in leadership, Marcel Q. H. van Poecke and Willem A. Willemstein, currently Co-CEOs of Petroplus, will be stepping down from their management and Executive Board responsibilities over the refining and wholesaling activities of Petroplus. They will remain investors in Petroplus through their holdings in RIVR. In regards to the transition, Marcel and Willem remarked, "We are very excited that Tom and his team are joining Petroplus. We expect a smooth and effective transition and believe this new leadership will enhance the future success of Petroplus."


Mr. O’Malley said, "I am very pleased to have the opportunity to lead Petroplus in this exciting time in the oil refining industry. The fundamentals of our industry are very strong and we believe that the outlook for the future is excellent. We plan to capitalize on this environment by improving the profitability of the existing assets and reshaping the capital structure of the Company. We will endeavor to expand further by acquiring additional refineries. We have a good track record in this regard, and any such acquisitions would be accretive to earnings and result in a larger, financially stronger, more profitable company. Petroplus is currently engaged in the restructuring or disposition of a number of other business areas that are not core to the refining and wholesaling business. We plan to continue this process and to reinvest any proceeds from the sale of non-core operations in strengthening our core area of refining and wholesaling operations."


Mr. O’Malley will be acquiring a significant ownership interest in Petroplus. He commented further, "Our team, when combined with the current Petroplus team, will provide a very strong and talented group which should allow us to become the leading independent refiner and wholesaler in Europe." "We intend to carefully investigate the opportunity to improve the capital structure of the Company," Karyn Ovelmen, the new CFO, said. "This is a capital intensive area of industry, and the Company would benefit from an improved balance sheet and potential access to public equity and debt markets."


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About Petroplus
Petroplus International B. V. (Petroplus) was established in 1993 and has since developed into a leading player in the European refining market. Petroplus owns refineries in Antwerp, Belgium; Cressier, Switzerland and Teesside, United Kingdom. In addition, Petroplus recently announced the acquisition of the Belgian Refining Corporation, whose principle asset is a 120,000 barrel per day refinery in Antwerp, Belgium. This acquisition will result in an increase in Petroplus’s refining capacity to 355,000 barrels per day.


Petroplus is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of RIVR Acquistions B.V. RIVR will continue to develop its fast-growing 4Gas LNG terminalling and LNG marketing business which will be formally separated from and managed independently of Petroplus going forward. RIVR Acquisitions B.V., the parent company of Petroplus International B.V., is owned by funds and entities affiliated with Riverstone Holdings, The Carlyle Group, and Company management.


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