For additional information please contact:

Bob Burdett
Corporate Communications Manager
Nexant, Inc.

+1 415 369 1114
bburdett@nexant.com


   

NEXANT'S CHEMSYSTEMS EUROPEAN SEMINAR CHARTS STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR THE GLOBAL PETROLEUM AND CHEMICALS SECTOR

ANNUAL FORUM ATTRACTS P&C INDUSTRY EXPERTS IN FINANCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

13 January 2004---London------Nexant's annual ChemSystems European seminar for the petroleum, chemical, and petrochemical industry is scheduled for the 11th and 12th of February, at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London, U.K. This year's event focuses on "Global Opportunities: Regional Challenges."

Few global industries are as subject to dramatic change as the petrochemicals industry. New developing regions are driving demand and focusing trade. New technologies are opening up opportunities to exploit new feedstock resources. Major end-use industries are reconfiguring themselves to take advantage of new markets and different cost structures. For industry participants whose strategic outlook anticipates these changes there is much to consider. As has been the case with Nexant's previous European seminars, this year's event is expected to be a leading forum for generating ideas and charting strategic direction for the industry in the months and years ahead.

To assess these opportunities, Nexant has assembled a distinguished group of experts from its own ranks and from leading operating companies, the financial community, technology providers, and emerging market business leaders. Seminar presentations will cover the full spectrum of topics, from oil and gas to downstream refining and chemicals, to provide an integrated perspective of the major drivers and issues facing Europe's petroleum and chemical industries within the global business landscape.

James Briggs, Managing Director of Nexant Limited and Senior Vice President and Director of Petroleum and Chemicals, will formally open the proceedings and introduce the keynote address by Volker Trautz, President and CEO of Basell. Nexant's Richard Sleep will discuss the dynamics of the global petrochemicals trade, and Robert Lind of ABN AMRO will provide an overview of the economic outlook for the industry from the viewpoint of the financial sector. The petrochemicals session will include presentations on the global olefins business, with Nexant's Tony Holloway and Roger Green discussing the evolving marketplace for the C4 chain and the major polyolefins polymer group.

The feedstocks session includes papers by Jonathan Hall of Nexant on the global influence of gas and its availability as a driver to petrochemicals development, followed by colleague Graham Hoar's discussion of the emergence of value-added opportunities for methane.

Day one's final session covers three diverse papers on industry structure issues. Mark Webber and Terry Baker of the EBRD will present a joint paper on the structural outlook for chemicals manufacturers in Central Europe-given the imminent expansion of the European Union-and Eddie Wilson of Chemair Technologies Ltd will then present some novel approaches to commodity polymer trading. Nexant's Dr Neil Checker will conclude the day with a review of options for sustaining the competitiveness of European manufacturing.

Day two of the seminar spotlights technology and developing regions, with Nova Chemical's General Manager of Technology Licensing, John Crick, profiling development in polyolefins catalysis. Nexant's Dr Mark Morgan will also present a paper on the changing techno-commercial landscape in alpha-olefins.

Three papers will be offered in the developing regions session, and a great deal of interest is anticipated in the paper on Russian development to be given by Vladimir Ostroverkhov, a director of Yukos. Nexant's Rizwan Sheikh will present a paper on the current status and forward projection for the Middle East and Nexant's representative in Beijing, David Jiang, will round off the conference with a discussion on the opportunities and challenges posed by the continued development of the Chinese demand for chemicals and investment.

For additional information on the 2004 Nexant ChemSystems European seminar, please contact Jennifer Kilbane at +44 20 7950 1512 (e-mail: jkilbane@nexant.com).

About Nexant

Nexant’s products and services help clients solve critical strategic and operational challenges in several key areas: petroleum and chemicals; retail and wholesale power markets; energy trading; enterprise risk management and decision support; energy delivery and management; and advanced energy technology. Following its acquisition of Chem Systems in 2001, Nexant has successfully integrated its petrochemical and chemical industry offerings to form a global petroleum and chemicals (P&C) division, with a depth of resources in Europe and the Americas, and a growing presence in Asia. Nexant's P&C division now offers the most fully integrated range of consulting services of any consulting firm-from the wellhead to speciality chemicals.

Having transformed itself into one of the largest industry-focused energy and chemical consulting firms, Nexant has redefined the consulting services business model, combining industry expertise and analytical skills with a new range of customer-focused technology solutions, as represented by its ChemSystems® Online(TM) (www.chemsystemsonline.com) platform of web-based software applications and analytical tools.

Nexant Limited, the U.K. subsidiary of Nexant, Inc., is located in London. Nexant, Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with additional offices in Bangkok, Thailand; Tokyo, Japan; White Plains, NY; Washington, D.C.; Houston, TX; Boulder, CO; Phoenix, AZ; and Madison, WI. The company is owned by a select group of investors and Nexant management and employees. Nexant® and ChemSystems® are proprietary trademarks of Nexant, Inc.

 

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