HOUSTON, Oct. 19, 2000 (PRNewswire via COMTEX) — BP said today it will dramatically decrease its Houston area emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) — a contributor to ozone formation — through the construction of new power and steam cogeneration facilities at its Texas City and Chocolate Bayou refining and chemical sites.

BP is finalizing negotiations with Ohio-based Cinergy Solutions to build the facilities, which will be powered by clean-burning natural gas. BP Global Power, the power development unit of BP Gas and Power, will be an investor in the project's development.

The facilities will allow BP to shut down older, less efficient power units resulting in NOx emission reductions of about 53 per cent from the Texas City site and 34 percent from the Chocolate Bayou site. This project is a key component in BP's proactive approach to working with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) to meet their proposed 90 percent emission reductions targets. In addition to substantial NOx reductions, the sites will also reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 727,000 tons per year.

Combined, the existing assets and new facilities will produce 805 megawatts of electricity and 3.5 million pounds per hour of steam. As well as improving environmental air quality in Texas, the project will create hundreds of new construction jobs, help maintain the global competitiveness of both sites and underpin security of electricity supply to the surrounding areas. The power generation units will be able to produce more electricity than required by the two sites enabling the excess to be sold on to the open market to other energy users.

"Leadership in environmental progress is a cornerstone of the BP brand," said Tim Scruggs, Vice President of the Texas City business unit. "This is a further demonstration of our commitment to improving air quality in Texas. It gives the public, TNRCC and our colleagues a clear idea of how we plan to reach the aggressive emission targets set for industrial facilities in our area. We also believe the project helps create business opportunities for us and for others as well."

Steve Harkness, the President and COO of Cinergy Solutions, said, "We are extremely pleased that we were selected to partner with an environmental leader like BP on these projects, where we will be able to demonstrate our talents for improving the efficiency of energy generation and usage. Based on our successes with our other industrial partners, we know that environmental excellence can be achieved in balance with safety and economics."

In September, BP announced its commitment to work with the TNRCC to achieve substantial NOx emission reductions from its industrial point sources in the Houston non-attainment area. BP is the only energy company to support the State Implementation Plan (SIP) target reductions in an effort to bring Houston into compliance with the standards set by the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

"While others are fighting the process and casting doubt, we are stating our support and commitment to reducing pollution and to doing what we think is part of the solution to air quality in and around Houston, " Scruggs added.

This commitment is fully in line with the BP's position as the first energy company to commit to reduce it's global greenhouse gas emissions, manifested in CO2 emissions, by 10 percent over its baseline 1990 totals by the year 2010.

In addition to these initiatives, BP is working with the city of Houston to provide ECD-200, an ultra low sulfur diesel which, when used in conjunction with after treatment technologies, reduces NOx, sulfur and particulate emissions. The city is embarking this fall on a project to test fuels and treatment on a number of diesel-power vehicles and machines.

"All of these efforts, including our 30 part-per million gasoline offerings in 40 cities worldwide demonstrate our intent to be part of the nation's environmental solutions, not problems," Scruggs said.

BP is a leading natural gas producer, and energy and electricity marketer in North America. Worldwide it is the second largest non-state producer of natural gas, the cleanest burning fossil fuel, with reserves of more than forty trillion cubic feet.

Cinergy Solutions is an affiliate of Cinergy Corp., one of the nation's largest diversified energy companies. Cinergy, a leading producer and marketer of energy, is expanding its energy services capabilities throughout North America. Cinergy owns or operates more than 16,500 megawatts of electrical and combined heat plant generation that is either operational or under development.

The Texas City refinery is the largest in the BP system and one of the largest in the US, processing 450,000 barrels of crude per day. The refinery produces gasoline, distillates and chemical feedstocks. The Texas City chemicals plant is a world-class producer of metaxylene, paraxylene, and styrene as chemical intermediates that are further processed at other facilities. The Chocolate Bayou Works is a leading producer of Olefins (primarily ethylene, propylene and butadiene the primary building blocks for many plastics, rubber and other products), and Polypropylene (both homopolymer and copolymer) which is used in a range of products from carpets to automobile bumpers.

SOURCE BP Amoco PLC

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