CB&I Acquires John Brown Hydrocarbons; Acquisition Expands Engineering Capacity, Geographic and Market Reach.

Energy Editors/Business Editors

THE WOODLANDS, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 2003

CB&I (NYSE:CBI) has acquired substantially all of the business of John Brown Hydrocarbons Limited (John Brown), a subsidiary of OAO NK YUKOS (YUKOS Oil Company), Russia's largest integrated petroleum company. Terms were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive in 2003.

Headquartered in London, John Brown provides comprehensive engineering, program and construction management services in the offshore, onshore and pipeline sectors of the hydrocarbon industry, as well as for LNG terminals and flue gas desulfurization plants. John Brown currently has more than 600 employees in offices in London, Moscow, the Caspian Region and Canada. An established name in the engineering and construction industry, John Brown traces its lineage to the John Brown engineering firm founded in England in 1837.

The acquisition of John Brown will broaden the scope of CB&I's EPC services already offered to the hydrocarbon industry to now encompass the entire oil and gas process cycle -- from upstream through downstream processing, storage and distribution. The combination will unite John Brown's resources in engineering and project management services with CB&I's worldwide marketing, fabrication and project execution capabilities. In addition, the acquisition will expand CB&I's presence in geographic areas with significant growth potential, in particular Russia, the Middle East and the Caspian Sea. John Brown will become a part of CB&I's Process & Technology group.

In addition to its ongoing work with major owners in the oil and gas industry, John Brown currently has an alliance agreement with YUKOS to provide technical and project services from its Moscow office in support of production operations throughout Russia. YUKOS will be the world's fourth largest private oil producer following its pending merger with Sibneft. John Brown is also performing the engineering for EnCana Corporation, the world's largest independent oil exploration company, and its co- venture partners for the development of the Buzzard field, the biggest project in the UK North Sea in the last 25 years.

"John Brown is one of the oldest and most respected names in the engineering and construction industry," said Gerald M. Glenn, CB&I's Chairman, President and CEO. "This acquisition strengthens our international engineering and execution platform and expands our capabilities into the upstream oil and gas sector. It is consistent with our strategy of acquiring well- managed companies with strong growth prospects that give us the ability to leverage our core skills and infrastructure. We are pleased to add John Brown to the growing CB&I family."

In accordance with the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, CB&I cautions that statements in this press release which are forward looking and which provide other than historical information involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and the actual outcome and results may differ materially from what is expressed. A variety of factors could cause business conditions to differ from what is expressed in the forward-looking statements. Please see CB&I's Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2002, for a more complete discussion of these risk factors.

CB&I is a global specialty engineering, procurement and construction company serving customers in several primary end markets, including hydrocarbon refining, natural gas, water and the energy sector in general. We offer a complete package of design, engineering, fabrication, procurement, construction and maintenance services. Our projects include hydrocarbon processing plants, LNG terminals and peak shaving plants, bulk liquid terminals, water storage and treatment facilities, and other steel structures and their associated systems. Information about CB&I is available at www.chicagobridge.com.