Basell announced today that China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) has selected Basell’s Lupotech T technology for a new 250 KT per year LDPE plant to be built at Maoming in Guangdong province, PRC. UHDE GmbH of Dortmund, Germany will be the engineering contractor for the plant, which is scheduled to start up in 2007.

“We are very pleased to have been selected as technology provider for this important Sinopec project,” said Just Jansz, president of Basell’s Technology Business, who participated in a signing ceremony in Beijing. “This will be the sixth Lupotech T plant in China scheduled to start up over the next three years. With 1.3 million tonnes of new capacity coming on-stream, Lupotech T’s position as the leading LDPE technology in China is reinforced.”

Lupotech T is a high pressure tubular reactor process for the production of LDPE homopolymers and EVA-copolymers. There are 26 Lupotech T plants operating world-wide and another six plants in construction for a total of 5 million tones per year of licensed capacity

Earlier this year, Basell celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Lupotech T process. More than 60 million tonnes of LDPE have been produced with this technology.

In addition to the Lupotech T process, Basell also licenses the following polypropylene and polyethylene technologies:

• Spheripol – polypropylene process for production of homopolymers, random and heterophasic copolymers.
• Spherizone – next generation polypropylene technology based on new multi-zone reactor technology.
• Hostalen - low-pressure slurry process for the production of bimodal HDPE.
• Spherilene - swing gas phase process for the production of LLDPE and HDPE.
• Lupotech G – fluidised bed gas phase process for the production of HDPE and MDPE.

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

About Sinopec:

Sinopec is the largest producer and marketer of refined oil products in China and in Asia.  This state-owned company is also the largest producer and distributor of petrochemicals in China and is the country’s second largest oil and gas explorer and producer.

About Basell:

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.

For more information contact Chantal Sohm, Basell Corporate Communications, at +33 1 55 51 21 19 or chantal.sohm@basell.com