Foster Wheeler Awarded EPCm Phase of PJ21 Project by Esso Raffinage France.

Business Editors

HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2002

Foster Wheeler Ltd. (NYSE:FWC) announced today that its French subsidiary, Foster Wheeler France S.A., was awarded a contract by Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, the French affiliate of the ExxonMobil Group, for the main part of the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) phase of the PJ21 project for its Port-Jerome Gravenchon refinery in Normandy, France.

The total investment cost is over $220 million and represents one of the most important environment improvement projects ever realized in France.

The PJ21 project includes a new grassroots Gofiner unit, the upgrading of the existing fluid catalytic cracking unit to increase plant conversion and propylene production and other associated units, such as monoethanolamine treatment and sour water stripper.

"This contract was the positive result of a very successful cooperation with Esso during the execution of the front-end engineering phase, which was carried out in a fully integrated effort with the Esso team of Rueil Malmaison," said Giorgio Veronesi, president and CEO of Foster Wheeler France.

The project will be executed out of Foster Wheeler's Paris and Milan offices. The Milan office will execute the EPC phase of the Gofiner and associated units, taking advantage of the successful experience in design of a similar plant for Esso Singapore Private Limited a few years ago.

Work will start immediately and the units are to be started up in the third-quarter 2004.

Notes to Editors:

1. Foster Wheeler Ltd. is a global company offering, through its

subsidiaries, a broad range of design, engineering,

construction, manufacturing, project development and

management, research, plant operation and environmental

services. The corporation is based in Hamilton, Bermuda, and

its operational headquarters are in Clinton, NJ. For more

information about Foster Wheeler, visit our World-Wide Web

site at www.fwc.com.

2. Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are

based on management's assumptions, expectations and

projections about the various industries within which the

Corporation operates. Such forward-looking statements by their

nature involve a degree of risk and uncertainty. The

corporation cautions that a variety of factors, including but

not limited to the following, could cause business conditions

and results to differ materially from what is contained in

forward-looking statements: changes in the rate of economic

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economies, changes in investment by the energy, power and

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changes in project schedules, changes in trade, monetary and

fiscal policies worldwide, currency fluctuations, outcomes of

pending and future litigation, protection and validity of

patents and other intellectual property rights, and increasing

competition by foreign and domestic companies.

3. Definitions

Gofiner -- an ExxonMobil technology for upgrading and

desulfurizing heavy hydrocarbons such as cat cracker feeds.

Catalytic cracking -- The process of breaking up heavier

hydrocarbon molecules into lighter hydrocarbon fractions by

using heat and catalysts.

Monoethanolamine -- a particular chemical compound used to

remove hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide from gas streams.

Sour water stripper -- a distillation device used to remove

hydrogen sulfide from water.