Re Contract

ABB Ltd
13 December 2002


ABB wins US$ 34 million contract to work on world's largest oil pipeline



Industrial IT control and safety systems for 1,760-kilometer project from
Azerbaijan to Turkey



Zurich, Switzerland, December 13, 2002 - ABB, the leading power and automation
technology group, said today it has won a US$ 34 million contract to supply
control and safety systems for the world's longest oil pipeline, running from
Azerbaijan to Turkey.



The new systems are based on ABB's Industrial IT technology, which links
products and services with the information needed to run, service and maintain
them. The construction consortium, BTC, will be able to control operations at
both ends of the pipeline, which are 1,760 kilometers apart and in different
countries.

'A cross-border technology solution is needed to make sure this extremely
complex pipeline runs efficiently,' said Dinesh Paliwal, head of ABB's
Automation Technologies division. 'Our Industrial IT platform is unique in that
it handles both process and safety control in one system, rather than with
separate systems as is done traditionally. This is important to ensure pipeline
efficiency, as well as environmental and personal safety.'



Construction of the US$ 2.9 billion underground pipeline will start next year
and is due to be completed in 2005. When commissioned, it is expected to carry
one million barrels of oil a day from Sangachel on Azerbaijan's Caspian coast,
through Georgia to a new marine terminal at Ceyhan on Turkey's southern
Mediterranean coast.



Under the terms of the contract, ABB will supply, install and commission
integrated control and safety systems to provide operational control, emergency
shutdown options, and fire and gas monitoring of the pipeline, a marine terminal
and two offshore production platforms.



The work includes remote-controlled subsystems to isolate sections of the
pipeline for regular inspection and maintenance. The pipeline will be linked
over its entire length by a fiber optic telecommunications backbone. Associated
field instrumentation includes transmitters and ultrasonic flow metering for the
terminal, valve and pumping stations.



ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable
utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering
environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in more than 100
countries and employs about 146,000 people.




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