Yokohama, Japan - JGC Corporation takes pleasure in announcing that it has been awarded a contract to construct an ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant planned in China by BASF-YPC Co., Ltd.

1. Owner:
BASF-YPC Company Limited. (a Chinese corporation), a 50-50 joint venture between BASF of Germany and China's Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC).

2. Plant location:
Nanjing, China

3. Contents of contract:
Contractual services: Detailed design, equipment/materials procurement, construction and test-run supervising services for a 315,000-ton-per-year (nominal capacity) ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant.
Contract form: A lump-sum, turn-key contract

4.Delivery date:
November 2004

5.Project outline:
Ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol are used as feed for fibers, for which China has a growing demand these days. This plant constitutes a part of a petrochemical complex, with a 600,000-ton ethylene plant at its core, being developed jointly by BASF, a chemical company in Germany and SINOPEC.
The production process begins with the oxidation and distillation/purification of ethylene to produce ethylene oxide, which is then concentrated and distilled/purified into ethylene glycol. In this plant, the process features BASF's technical improvements in energy savings and safety. JGC's services include detailed design, construction and test run supervision, to be developed on the basis of BASF's own basic design package. In carrying out these services, JGC cooperates with local partner SINOPEC Engineering Inc. (SEI), an engineering company under SINOPEC, utilizing its design and procurement work based in Beijing.

Including successful completion of an ethylene plant in cooperation with SEI, JGC has extensive construction experience in China, covering not only petrochemical plants but also petroleum refining and pharmaceuticals plants, amounting to as many as 70 projects.
The contract award of this time is believed to reflect the owner's high evaluation of such extensive achievements JGC has accumulated in China.

BASF-YPC Company Limited, established in December 2000 is to construct and operate an Integrated Petrochemical Site with a total investment amounting to 2.9 billion USD (include utilities). The site is expected to begin commercial operations in 2005 and will produce about 1.7 million metric tons chemicals and polymers per year to serve the domestic market.