OREANDA-NEWS.  January 12, 2012. Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo / Paid in Capital: 107.2 bn JPY / President: Yaichi Kimura) wish to express our sincere apologies on the concerns and inconveniences caused to the local residents and to all those whom have been affected by the fire/explosion at Chiba Refinery on March 11, 2011.

We are pleased to announce that partial operations at Chiba Refinery have resumed today following preparations for physical start-up after the receipt of safety inspection approval on December 27, 2011( already publicly announced ).

The partial operation will allow high sulfur fuel oil transported from Cosmo's other refineries to be used as feedstock to produce low sulfur fuel oil at Chiba Refinery.

Operations of other units with highest priority on safety will also resume as they receive safety inspection approval and physical preparations become ready.