American International Petroleum Subsidiary Ramping Up Refining Processing Rates; Asphalt Operations Backlog At Record Level.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2001

American International Petroleum Corporation (OTC BB: AIPN) today announced its Lake Charles, Louisiana refinery has increased its aggregate processing rate up to approximately 27,000 barrels per day (bpd), of which 14,000 bpd of crude oil is processed through its atmospheric distillation unit ("ADU") and 13,000 bpd of ADU bottoms are processed through its vacuum distillation unit ("VDU"), well ahead of the minimum rates included in a press release last month.

The Lake Charles refinery, owned by a wholly owned subsidiary American International Refinery, Inc. ("AIRI"), is processing for Sargeant Bulktainers ("SB"), a unit of The Sargeant Group of Companies, under a recently amended processing agreement. Under the agreement, AIRI is utilizing both the ADU and VDU to refine for a fee, SB's feedstocks into naphtha, distillates, ADU bottoms, vacuum gas oil (`VGO') and asphalt.

SB is currently delivering continuous shipments of its crude to AIRI, enabling AIRI's refinery to maximize efficiency by operating continuously and thus maximizing cash flow.

The Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Gulf Coast Petroleum Trading Inc. ("Gulf Coast") will initiate the sale of refined products this week.

Additionally, AIRI and SB signed a joint venture agreement last year, whereby SB is supplying AIRI with all its requirements of bulk asphalt and raw materials. AIRI utilizes its Lake Charles refinery and expertise to blend the asphalt into high-margin polymerized asphalt, and markets the finished products throughout the U.S. Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi River. Resultant profits are divided evenly between the partners.

Importantly, the joint venture is realizing the benefits of also being supplied with asphalt refined at the Lake Charles location under the AIRI/SB crude processing agreement. AIRI is utilizing its VDU to process ADU bottoms into asphalt which the joint venture blends into polymerized asphalt. In addition to not having to pay transportation charges to deliver asphalt to the refinery, the joint venture does not have to rely on other refineries to supply adequate quantities of asphalt which may also be more expensive to purchase.

The joint venture currently has a record backlog of approximately $11 million. AIRI expects to more than double its delivered volumes of asphalt to approximately 70,000 tons this year compared to 2000. The Company anticipates the combination of increased deliveries, efficiencies realized on processing higher volumes and access to low cost asphalt purchased from SB, will enable the joint venture to be cash flow positive for the year 2001. This, combined with the cash flows expected from the processing and marketing operations should reduce the need for the Company to access its equity line of credit for operations.

American International Petroleum Corporation is a diversified petroleum company which, through various wholly owned subsidiaries, is involved in oil and gas exploration and development in Kazakhstan, and in refining, marketing and transportation of petroleum products in the United States.

Statements herein may be identified as forward-looking for purposes of safe harbor provisions under Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Commission Act of 1934. Such statements relating to the Company's business, including, specific to this press release: ability of AIRI to maintain stated levels of crude refining and asphalt processing, or any level of production; ability of SB to supply crude oil and asphalt feedstocks in timely manner, if at all; ability of AIRI/SB to supply product(s), to Gulf Coast, and its ability to successfully market those products; AIRI's ability to operate and maintain ADU and/or VDU, if at all; ability of AIRI/SB joint venture to maintain backlog, or supply product to meet any backlog, including ability to deliver approximately 70,000 tons of product this year; ability of joint venture to operate on a positive cash flow for 2001; combined cash flows being sufficient to allow Company to not utilize its equity line of credit; and, all future business of the Company, are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements, and other risks and factors, identified in the Company's SEC filings.