Yokohama, Japan - JGC Corporation takes pleasure in announcing that JGC has been selected to construct an ethylene plant planned at Daya Bay Economic and Technical Development Zone, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, in China, by CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company Ltd. (CSPC). CSPC is a joint venture between Shell Nanhai BV and CNOOC Petrochemicals Investment Limited (CPIL). The contract for the project will be signed on November 25, 2002.

JGC will carry out the engineering, equipment/material procurement, construction and commissioning for the ethylene plant. The contract value is approximately USD 500 million. Delivery date is scheduled for September 2005.

Three major petrochemical complex construction projects are currently under way in China. The ethylene plant to be constructed by JGC is part of the complex planned by CSPC. The plant will form the core of the complex. The client will invest USD 4.3 billion in construction of its petrochemical complex, which will produce about 2.3 million tonnes per year of products, generating up to USD 1.7 billion in product sales. The complex will be completed in late 2005.

The 800,000 t/y ethylene cracker will be flexible to various feedstock, including naphtha and heavy oil, and will feature a state-of-the-art field communication system.

The ethylene plant will form part of the petrochemical complex comprised of ethylene cracker, TCG hydrogenation unit (processing quantity 857,000 t/y), benzene extraction unit (255,000 t/y), and butadiene extraction unit (130,000 t/y). The ethylene and propylene produced will be used as feedstock in the polyethylene and polypropylene plants, which are also to be constructed as downstream plants of complex.
For the award of this project, Stone & Webster, as JGC's alliance partner for ethylene plant projects, cooperated with JGC.

In addition to successful completion of ethylene plants in Daqing (1985) and Maoming (1996), and the ongoing ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant construction project awarded to JGC in October 2002 by BASF of Germany and China's Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC), JGC has extensive construction experience in China. JGC is currently constructing a pharmaceutical plant for Shanghai Tsumura Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. Projects completed by JGC run from petrochemical plants and petroleum refineries to pharmaceutical plants. In January 2002, JGC received an order from CNOOC for the basic design work for a LNG receiving terminal to be built in Shenzhen. The total number of projects performed by JGC in China is now around 70.

In Singapore, JGC completed a styrene monomer/propylene oxide plant in 2002 for a joint venture formed between Shell and BASF. Further, JGC constructed LNG plants for Shell in Nigeria, Malaysia and Australia.

In China, major Western oil and chemical companies are actively planning and investing in oil-, gas- and petrochemical-related projects. JGC intends to maximize opportunities connected with these projects through vigorous sales activities.

JGC is an international engineering and construction company based in Yokohama, Japan, having multiple operating centers and executing large scale projects world-wide. JGC is currently executing projects in Nigeria, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Australia, Venezuela and other countries. Established in 1928, JGC has a strong background in lump sum turnkey operations of both hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon related projects with annual sales turnover of approximately $3 billion.

JGC's website can be accessed at http://www.jgc.co.jp