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Neste Oil reports a comparable operating profit of EUR 189 million for Q2


WEBWIRE –

3 August 2006
High oil price environment and strong demand especially for gasoline and gasoline components characterized the second quarter. These benefited Neste Oil, and the Group recorded a comparable operating profit of EUR 189 million, slightly below the record-high second quarter in 2005.


Second quarter in brief:
• Comparable operating profit of EUR 189 million (Q2/05: 201 million)
• Operating profit of EUR 280 million (Q2/05: 235 million)
• Earnings per share EUR 0.76 (Q2/05: 0.68)
• Cash flow from operations EUR 278 million (Q2/05: 213 million)
• Diesel project now scheduled to be in operation during the first quarter of 2007


President & CEO Risto Rinne:
"Companies with complex refining capacity, such as Neste Oil, have been able to continue the strong performance that has been seen since 2004. The gasoline market has been strong since April, especially in the US, as we anticipated, and this benefited our sales on the US market.

During the quarter the Diesel Project faced two strikes and contractor’s shortage of specialist resources. We expect to commence the start-up phase of the new diesel production line at the Porvoo refinery still in 2006 and thus be in operation during the first quarter of 2007.

I have become more and more confident of the prospects for renewable traffic fuels. As decision- makers worldwide have started to implement national biofuels policies, we are at the cutting edge with our biodiesel technology"

News conference and conference call

A press conference in Finnish on the second-quarter results will be held today, 3 August 2006, at 11:30 am EET in the Mirror Room at Hotel Kämp, Pohjoisesplanadi 29, Helsinki. www.nesteoil.com will feature English versions of the presentation materials.

A conference call in English for investors and analysts will be held today, 3 August 2006, at 3:00 pm Finland / 1:00 pm London / 8:00 am New York. The call-in numbers are as follows: UK: +44 (0) 20 7162 0025, US: +1 334 323 6201. Use the password: Neste Oil. An instant replay will be available until 10 August 2006 at +44 (0) 207 031 4064 for the UK and +1 954 334 0342 for the US, using access code 714060.

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