Re Contract

ABB Ltd
13 August 2001


ABB Media Relations                            ABB Investor Relations
Thomas Schmidt                                 Switzerland: Tel. [phone]
Tel: [phone]                            Sweden: Tel. [phone]
Fax: [phone]                            USA: Tel. [phone]
[e-mail]                     [e-mail]


For your business and technology editors

ABB to build US$ 93 million gas compressor in Algeria
Will design and build compressor station on pipeline linking Algeria and Europe

Zurich, Switzerland, August 13 - ABB, the global technology company, today
announced it has been awarded a contract worth US$ 93 million to design and
build a gas compressor station.

The SC3 compressor station will be built on the Pedro Duran Fare 1 Pipeline, a
1,400 kilometer gas line connecting Algeria to Europe through a link under the
Straits of Gibraltar.

It will increase the pipeline's flow rate from 8 billion to about 11 billion
cubic meters of gas per year.

'We are very pleased to be working with Sonatrach to improve the performance of
this valuable and important gas line,' says Gorm Gundersen, executive vice
president and head of ABB's Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals division.

The pipeline is owned and operated by the state-run oil and gas company,
Sonatrach. In June, ABB won a US$ 70 million contract to upgrade a key oil
pipeline in Algeria, also owned and operated by Sonatrach.

Under the terms of the contract, ABB is responsible for the engineering,
procurement, construction, commissioning and test runs of the station. The
project will be designed at ABB Lummus Global's office in Milan, while
construction activities will be carried out by Sarpi, which is a 50% Joint
Venture company owned by Sonatrach and ABB.

The project is scheduled for completion within 27 months.

ABB (www.abb.com) supplies industry automation and power technology products,
financial services and integrated solutions to utilities, manufacturing and
process industries and the oil, gas and petrochemicals sector. ABB employs some
160,000 people in more than 100 countries.