Ashland Distribution and Borealis Expand European Distribution Alliance

    DUBLIN, Ohio, Feb. 3 -- Ashland Distribution
Company and Borealis have announced that as of March 1, 2003, they will extend
their current European distribution agreement to also include polypropylene
for small- and medium-sized automotive and household appliance customers in
the Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland and the UK, in
addition to the Nordic countries.  Ashland Distribution, a division of Ashland
Inc. , is already a key distributor throughout Europe of all
natural grades of Borealis-produced polypropylene and polyethylene.
    According to Walter Baumann, Vice President of Borealis' Engineering
Applications business unit: "The rapid expansion and global growth of
customers in the automotive and household appliance industry emphasizes the
need to focus Borealis' sales force on market development projects to optimize
support for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and system suppliers.
Custom-tailored engineering polypropylene products have been the key success
factor in Borealis' strong acceptance in many markets."
    "The expansion of Ashland's relationship with a key supplier such as
Borealis allows us to enhance our product offering and better serve our
customers," said Stephen P. Fazakas, vice president, international, Ashland
Distribution Company.
    Ashland and Borealis began their distribution relationship in 1997 when
Ashland began to provide local sales and service of Borealis polyethylene and
polypropylene to plastic processors in Western Europe.  Ashland will continue
to concentrate on the small to medium sized customers in all markets, but now
with extended focus on the automotive and appliance industry for which the
agreement previously only included the Nordic countries.

    Ashland Distribution Company is a leading pan-European distributor
offering a broad range of the world's leading commodity and engineering
thermoplastics, and a full complement of application development and technical
support services.  Ashland Distribution is a division of Ashland Inc.
and is a leading provider of chemicals, plastics, resins and
reinforcements, ingredients and environmental services in North America.
Learn more about Ashland Inc. at http://www.ashland.com.

    Borealis is one of the world's leading suppliers of high-quality
polyolefin plastics -- polyethylene and polypropylene -- producing over
3 million tons of these plastics per year.
    The Borealis head office is in Denmark and the Group has manufacturing
sites and operations in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Italy,
Norway, Portugal, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the USA.
    Borealis is owned 50% by the Norwegian oil company Statoil, 25% by IPIC,
the International Petroleum Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and 25% by OMV,
the Austrian oil and gas group.  Learn more about Borealis at
http://www.borealisgroup.com.