BOS backing Gdansk Refinery $540 million development

Yesterday Gdansk Refinery (RG) and Bank Ochrony Srodowiska (BOS) repre sentatives signed an agreement concerning financial cooperation on the IGCC programme, which is part of the refinery's development plan to allow it to better process oil and limit sulfur-rich waste. This should be accomplished by mid-2006 and will allow the Refinery to increase its output from 4 million tones to about 6 million tones. The contractor for the $540 million project will be Lotos Energia, set up by RG, and may soon be joined by Shell and Kellogg, as the Refinery has signed a letter of intent with them. "We hope to get a $100 million loan from BOS on preferential terms," said president of the Refinery Pawel Olechnowicz. The rest of the necessary capital is likely to come from a consortium created by the bank. However this will take about another year to finalize. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B4) M.M.