Re Contract

ABB Ltd
30 October 2000


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ABB signs US$200-million orders to modernize Russian refinery

ABB technologies to boost gasoline production, reduce fuel emissions

Zurich, Switzerland, October 30, 2000 - Global technology group ABB announced
today that it has signed contracts worth some US$200 million to modernize
Tyumen Oil Company's oil refinery in Ryazan, Russia.

The modernization project is intended to increase production of clean,
high-octane gasoline at Tyumen's largest refinery, located approximately 190
kilometers (120 miles) east of Moscow. Using technologies developed by ABB
Lummus Global and by an ABB-Chevron joint venture, Tyumen also aims to reduce
emissions from the transportation fuels it produces at Ryazan and to expand
its share of the Russian gasoline market.

Tyumen is the second-largest oil company in Russia in terms of proven reserves,
with reserves of about 1 billion tons and underdeveloped reserves estimated at
2.4 billion tons.

The orders, which involve technology, engineering and procurement services, as
well as equipment are being financed in part through loan guarantees approved in
April 2000 by the United States Export-Import (Exim) Bank under the Oil and Gas
Framework Agreement between the United States and the Russian Federation. The
Ryazan refinery modernization will be the third major refinery project in which
ABB has been involved under U.S. Exim Bank guarantees. The first was the LUKOIL
Permnefteorgsyntez refinery at Perm in the Ural region of western Russia, first
announced in 1995. The second was the 1997 order for equipment and services from
the Nizhnekamsk (NKNK) petrochemicals complex at Nizhnekamsk, in the Republic of
Tatarstan in western Russia.

The ABB Group (www.abb.com) serves customers in power transmission and
distribution; automation; oil, gas, and petrochemicals; building technologies;
and in financial services. With novel IT applications, tailored software
solutions, growing eBusiness and a fast-expanding knowledge and service base,
ABB is building links to the new economy. The ABB Group employs about 160,000
people in more than 100 countries.