Technip has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, effective as of June 17, 2005, with The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC), a joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Petrochemical Industries Company, Kuwait (PIC) and Kuwaiti Private Companies, for the construction of an ethylene plant at their new Olefins-2 Petrochemical Complex in Shuaiba, Kuwait.

The plant, with a production capacity of 850,000 mt/year, will play an important role in Kuwait’s program to significantly increase the country’s ethylene derivatives production by 2008.

Technip’s engineering center in Rome (Italy) will execute the contract, which includes detail engineering, procurement and supply of equipment and materials, construction and pre-commissioning. The project is scheduled to be completed early 2008.

The plant will be based on Technip’s in-house technology. The basic engineering for the proprietary SMK®* cracking furnaces, as well as the front-end design for the recovery section have already been provided by Technip’s engineering center in Claremont, California.

Technip is a leader in the field of ethylene production and is one of the few world-class groups capable of assuming complete responsibility for steam crackers, from conceptual design to turnkey execution and construction on a lump sum basis.

* Technip’s SMK® technology has become the preferred choice of various ethylene producers for cracking gas feeds.