Dan F. Smith, president and CEO of Lyondell Chemical Company said: "Refining margins remained strong while propylene oxide and derivatives and inorganic chemicals margins continued to increase. Consistent with the strong results, our commitment to debt reduction remains on track as demonstrated by our call of an additional $300 million of debt during the quarter" he added.

Lyondell has benefited from the expected seasonal improvement in its MTBE and titanium dioxide products and continued improvement in the propylene oxide chain. Scheduled maintenance activity at LYONDELL-CITGO Refining (LCR) is expected to adversely affect LCR's second-quarter operating income by $30 million to $50 million.

Lyondell's operations are divided into four segments: 1) Ethylene, co- products and derivatives; 2) Propylene oxide (PO) and related products; 3) Inorganic chemicals; and 4) Refining, which consists of Lyondell's 58.75& ownership of LCR, a joint venture with CITGO Petroleum Corp.

Lyondell Chemical Company, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is North America's third-largest independent, publicly traded chemical company. It is a major global manufacturer of basic chemicals and derivatives including ethylene, propylene, titanium dioxide, styrene, polyethylene, propylene oxide and acetyls. It also is a significant producer of gasoline blending components.