Vertex Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:VTNR, "Vertex Energy" or the "Company"), a leading specialty refiner and marketer of high-quality refined products, today announced that it has named Bart Rice as Division President of Renewable and Conventional Fuels for Vertex.

Rice, who joined Vertex in early 2020, brings 40 years of energy industry experience to the Company. Previously, he served in executive leadership roles with Rice Oil, Allied Energy Company, Crystal Energy LLC, Division President of Emerge Energy Services LP and Joint Venture Partner with Lansing Trade Group and Andersons, Inc. Bart has been instrumental in creating supplemental revenue streams around renewables and conventional fuels, pioneering the blending of ethanol with gasoline, biodiesel manufacturing, environmental reclamation, and trans-mix distillation, including hydrotreating and pipeline terminal operations.

As President of Renewable and Conventional Fuels, Rice will lead the oversight of Vertex's renewables strategy, including the commercial development of alternative feedstocks in the production of renewable diesel. In this role, Rice will lead an internal technical working group on the scoping and development of potential renewable diesel pre-treatment technology at the Myrtle Grove facility in Belle Chasse, LA, while continuing to lead the marketing of renewable diesel, renewable feedstocks and transportation fuels.

With Rice stepping into this new role, Vertex Energy believes it will be well positioned to evaluate and address new ways to expand on the company's core business, focused on marketing and producing high purity products designed to meet the nation's emerging energy transition and future environmental demands.

ABOUT VERTEX ENERGY

Houston-based Vertex Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: VTNR) is a specialty refiner of alternative feedstocks and marketer of high-purity products. Vertex is one of the largest used oil refiners in the U.S., with operations located in Houston and Port Arthur (TX), Marrero (LA) and Columbus (OH). Vertex also co-owns a facility, Myrtle Grove, located on a 41-acre industrial complex along the Gulf Coast in Belle Chasse, LA, with river and rail access, large waste water treatment facility access and other infrastructure assets that include nine million gallons of storage. The Company has built a reputation as a key supplier of Group II+ and Group III Base Oils to the lubricant manufacturing industry throughout North America. For more information on Vertex Energy visit, www.VertexEnergy.com.

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including information about management's view of Vertex Energy's future expectations, plans and prospects, within the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words "believes," "hopes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," or "may," and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act, and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Act. Any statements made in this news release other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the results of Vertex Energy, its divisions and concepts to be materially different than those expressed or implied in such statements. These risk factors include, but are not limited to, risks associated with our outstanding credit facilities, including amounts owed, restrictive covenants, security interests thereon and our ability to repay such facilities and amounts due thereon when due; risks associated with our outstanding preferred stock, including redemption obligations in connection therewith, restrictive covenants and our ability to redeem such securities when required pursuant to the terms of such securities and applicable law; the level of competition in our industry and our ability to compete; our ability to respond to changes in our industry; the loss of key personnel or failure to attract, integrate and retain additional personnel; our ability to protect our intellectual property and not infringe on others' intellectual property; our ability to scale our business; our ability to maintain supplier relationships and obtain adequate supplies of feedstocks; our ability to obtain and retain customers; our ability to produce our products at competitive rates; our ability to execute our business strategy in a very competitive environment; trends in, and the market for, the price of oil and gas and alternative energy sources; our ability to maintain our relationships with KMTEX and Bunker One (USA), Inc.; the impact of competitive services and products; our ability to integrate acquisitions; our ability to complete future acquisitions; our ability to maintain insurance; the outcome of pending and potential future litigation, judgments and settlements; rules and regulations making our operations more costly or restrictive, including IMO 2020; changes in environmental and other laws and regulations and risks associated with such laws and regulations; economic downturns both in the United States and globally; risk of increased regulation of our operations and products; negative publicity and public opposition to our operations; disruptions in the infrastructure that we and our partners rely on; an inability to identify attractive acquisition opportunities and successfully negotiate acquisition terms; our ability to effectively integrate acquired assets, companies, employees or businesses; liabilities associated with acquired companies, assets or businesses; interruptions at our facilities; unexpected changes in our anticipated capital expenditures resulting from unforeseen required maintenance, repairs, or upgrades; our ability to acquire and construct new facilities; certain events of default which have occurred under our debt facilities and previously been waived; prohibitions on borrowing and other covenants of our debt facilities; our ability to effectively manage our growth; decreases in global demand for, and the price of, oil, due to COVID-19, state, federal and foreign responses thereto; our ability to acquire sufficient amounts of used oil feedstock through our collection routes, to produce finished products, and in the absence of such internally collected feedstocks, our ability to acquire third-party feedstocks on commercially reasonable terms; risks associated with COVID-19, the global efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, potential downturns in the U.S. and global economies due to COVID-19 and the efforts to stop the spread of the virus, and COVID-19 in general; the lack of capital available on acceptable terms to finance our continued growth; and other risk factors included from time to time in documents Vertex Energy files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, its Form 10-Ks, Form 10-Qs and Form 8-Ks. These reports are available at www.sec.gov. Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could have material adverse effects on Vertex Energy's future results. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. Vertex Energy cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Finally, Vertex Energy undertakes no obligation to update these statements after the date of this release, except as required by law, and takes no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties that are not paid for by Vertex Energy. If we update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

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