INTERQUISA and Washington Group Announce Alliance for PTA Licensing.

Business Editors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2000

Intercontinental Quimica S.A. (INTERQUISA) and Washington Group International's (NYSE:WNG) Petroleum and Chemicals unit have announced an agreement to form an alliance for worldwide licensing of INTERQUISA's Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) Technology.

Washington Group will be primarily responsible for marketing, licensing and basic design and INTERQUISA will provide technology support as well as operator training and startup services. In support of the alliance, a joint cooperative development program will be undertaken at Washington Group's Weymouth, Massachusetts, research and development facility and CEPSA's R&D laboratory in Madrid.

Barry Gifford, vice president of Washington Group's Technology Center, located in Cambridge, MA, said, "The timing for this alliance is ideal. The PTA business cycle is entering an upswing in demand and investments in new plant capacity will be needed. Also, we expect that Interquisa's PTA Technology, which produces an industry recognized high quality product, will be immediately welcomed by new plant owners."

INTERQUISA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Compania Espanola de Petroleos (CEPSA), which is the second largest oil company in Spain with 25% of the Spanish oil market. An active player in the PTA market for more than 20 years, INTERQUISA operates a facility in San Roque, Spain, for the production of PTA, Dimethyl Terephthalate (DMT) and Purified Isophthalic Acid (PIPA). INTERQUISA is building, in a joint venture with Societe Generale de Financement du Quebec (SGF), a new 500,000 MTA PTA plant in Montreal East, with a planned start-up in mid 2002. Besides, Interquisa has started the construction for a new 350,000 MTA PTA plant in its site in Spain, with start-up scheduled for early 2002.

Washington Group International, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, is an international engineering and construction firm with annual revenues of more than $5.0 billion and a backlog of approximately $6.6 billion. With 39,000 employees at work in more than 40 countries, the company serves the environmental, government, heavy-civil, industrial, mining, nuclear-services, petroleum and chemicals, power, process, pulp and paper, telecommunications, transportation, and water-resources markets as an engineer, constructor, and program manager, and developer.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the private securities litigation reform act of 1995, which are identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "could," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate," or "continue" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based on various assumptions and estimates and are inherently subject to various risks and uncertainties, including risks and uncertainties relating to the possible invalidity of the underlying assumptions and estimates and possible changes or developments in social, economic, business industry, market, legal, and regulatory circumstances and conditions and actions taken or omitted to be taken by third parties, including the corporation's customers, suppliers, business partners, and competitors and legislative, regulatory, judicial, and other governmental authorities and officials.