Eastern Petrochemical Company Signs Letters of Intend to Construct Olefins, Ethylene Glycol and Polyethylene Plants

07-28-2005: SABIC affiliate, Eastern Petrochemical Company (SHARQ), has signed letters of intent to award contracts to:

1 .Stone & Webster Ltd., UK, to construct an Olefins Plant with a production capacity of 1,300,000 MT per annum of Ethylene;

2. Samsung Engineering Company Ltd., South Korea, to construct its Ethylene Glycol Plant with a production capacity of 700,000 MT per annum (increasing overall Ethylene Glycol production capacity to more than 2,000,000 MT per annum).

3. Linde, Germany, to construct its Linear Low and High Density Polyethylene plants with a production capacity of 800,000 MT per annum, which will increase polyolefins production at SHARQ to reach more than 1,600,000 MT per annum.

Mohamed Al-Mady, SABIC Vice Chairman and CEO said, "SHARQ's expansion project will add 2.8m MT annually to SABIC's production and will further enhance SHARQ's position as the world's largest single producer of Ethylene Glycol. This will also enhance SABIC's global ranking alongside the other global petrochemicals companies who produce this product. SABIC is currently ranked 2nd and is expected to become number one once this project comes on stream. SABIC is the world's 3rd largest producer of polyethylene and number four for polyolefins."

The agreements will cover engineering, procurement and construction of the plants at the SHARQ affiliate in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia. These will be complete by the first quarter of 2008.