Re Agreement

BP Amoco PLC
19 December 2000




DECEMBER 19, 2000  54/00


BP deal with SOLVAY strengthens Polyolefins Position


BP and Solvay announced today that they have signed a memorandum of
understanding aimed at strengthening their polymers businesses in Europe and
the United States.


In Europe, Solvay will transfer its polypropylene business to BP. The two
companies will also combine their European high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
businesses into a 50-50 joint venture. In the US, the agreement will lead to
Solvay and BP creating a 51-49 joint venture for Solvay's current HDPE
business and Solvay transferring its polypropylene business to BP. In
addition, BP will transfer its engineering polymers business to Solvay. The
transaction involves businesses with a combined turnover of $2.6 billion.


'This agreement is an important step in our petrochemicals portfolio
repositioning,' said Byron Grote, chief executive of BP's chemicals business.
'It creates an industry-leading joint venture in HDPE in Europe, gives BP an
equity position in the US HDPE market to support the growth of our olefins
business, and accesses significant efficiencies from merging Solvay's
polypropylene assets into our own. Our disposal of the engineering polymers
business is consistent with our focusing the BP portfolio into a limited set
of distinctive global positions.'


The proposed transaction will be subject to the final agreement of both
parties and to regulatory approval by the relevant authorities, as well as
consultation with workers' representatives. Completion is anticipated in
mid-2001. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.


The agreement strengthens BP's polypropylene position in the US and Europe.
With the addition of Solvay's 800,000 tonnes of annual production, BP will
manage the world's second largest portfolio of polypropylene assets - some 3.1
million tonnes of annual production.


The US and European joint ventures in HDPE will give BP and Solvay positions
in about 2.2 million tonnes of annual production. Solvay will also take a
leading global position in the high-growth high performance engineering
polymers business.


For further information:

David Nicholas, BP Press Office, London, Tel: [phone]

Scott Dean, BP Press Office, Chicago, Tel: [phone]