Lockheed Martin backs Grupa Lotos' $40 million project

On Wednesday the supervisory board of oil concern Grupa Lotos (GL) agreed to spend $40 million on modernizing its production lines. "The money will come from our own capital," said Paweł Olechnowicz, president of Gdańsk-based company. The final decision was greatly assisted thanks to an agreement with Lockheed Martin to jointly finance the project. The American side will partially pay for license fees concerning technology transfers from Shell and Kellogg Brown&Root. The modernization will allow GL to meet new EU quality requirements which enter force in 2005. This will allow the company to refine its products to the highest quality in additional quantities. After the first seven months of the year, GL made a zł. 165 million net profit against earlier projections of zł. 75 million. (Parkiet, p. 5) M.M.