June 1, 2006 – Basell has announced today that its joint venture in Thailand, HMC Polymers Company Ltd., has selected Basell’s Spherizone technology for a new
300 KT per year polypropylene plant to be built at Map Ta Phut, Rayong, Thailand. HMC will also build an associated propane dehydrogenation plant to supply the required feedstock. Start up of both plants is expected in 2009.

In addition, PTT, the publicly listed natural resources company of Thailand, will through the purchase of new and existing shares in HMC, acquire a 40% interest in the company. Basell will remain a major shareholder in the joint venture.

The transactions are scheduled to be finalized in August.

According to Ian Dunn, president of Basell International, “These transactions will put HMC in a leading regional position - with strong local partners, increased upstream integration and state-of-the-art process technology – to meet the growing needs of customers in Thailand and the Asia Pacific region.”

HMC already operates two existing Spheripol polypropylene plants at Map Ta Phut with a combined annual capacity of 450 KT.

“The Spherizone process is the latest and one of the most important innovations in the polyolefins industry,” said Just Jansz, president of Basell’s Technology Business, who participated in a signing ceremony in Bangkok, Thailand.  “With its ability to manipulate and customize molecular structures, the Spherizone process can manufacture products with new combinations of properties, enhancing performance in existing applications while creating opportunities for polypropylene to expand into new end uses.”

Jansz added, “With over 100 process licenses sold to date, Basell is the world’s leading licensor of polypropylene technology. The new HMC plant will be the sixth to be built with Spherizone technology and the second in Asia.”

Basell’s complete portfolio of licensed technologies is comprised of:

• Spheripol – polypropylene technology for the production of homopolymer, random and heterophasic copolymers
• Spherizone – latest generation polypropylene technology based on new multi-zone reactor technology
• Spherilene – swing gas phase process for the production of LLDPE, MDPE and HDPE
• Hostalen - low-pressure slurry process for the production of bi-modal HDPE
• Lupotech T – high pressure tubular reactor process for the production of LDPE and EVA copolymers
• Metocene - technology for production of specialty polypropylene products based on proprietary single-site catalyst systems

Basell also produces and commercialises advanced catalyst systems which are sold under the Avant trade name.

Basell is the world's largest producer of polypropylene and advanced polyolefin products, a leading supplier of polyethylene and catalysts, and a global leader in the development and licensing of polypropylene and polyethylene processes. Basell, together with its joint ventures, has manufacturing facilities around the world and sells products in more than 120 countries. Additional information about Basell is available at www.basell.com.