Air Products Canada to Build and Operate a Second Hydrogen Plant in Edmonton, Alberta for Additional Supply to Petro-Canadas Refinery


Oil Sands Upgrading the Focus of Long-Term Hydrogen Supply Agreement

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Air Products (NYSE:APD) announced today that its subsidiary, Air Products Canada Ltd., will construct a 105 million standard-cubic-feet-per-day (MMSCFD) hydrogen production plant to serve several customers in the Alberta Heartlands industrial corridor and the Petro-Canada refinery in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This industrial gas facility will be the first in Canada to provide a sale of hydrogen for use in the upgrading of Canadian oil sands. The hydrogen and steam generating facility, to be owned and operated by Air Products under a long-term agreement, is expected on-stream in April 2008.

Oil sands are composed of bitumen, sand, water, and clay, and must be physically separated by a flotation process prior to further processing. The separated bitumen is processed into sour synthetic crude oil. With the addition of hydrogen, the sour synthetic crude oil is then further refined into value-added products like gasoline and diesel fuel.

This is the second facility to be constructed by Air Products to supply hydrogen to Petro-Canada's 135,000 barrel-per-day Edmonton refinery, as well as several additional customers in the Edmonton area. A 71 MMSCFD facility is currently under construction and is expected to be on-stream in April 2006. The two interconnected hydrogen facilities will be adjacent to Petro-Canada's refinery and will help to produce cleaner transportation fuels and other petroleum products, eventually from 100% Canadian oil sands feedstock. The hydrogen supply arrangement is one of over 30 the company has undertaken with worldwide refiners in the past 15 years.

"We're proud to be the first industrial gas company to help make this vast resource viable for refining by supplying hydrogen for upgrading Canadian oil sands. On a worldwide basis, our production facilities provide refiners with the high reliability hydrogen supply that they need. With these projects, we extend that hydrogen supply to Canadian oil sands operators. This is our third plant to be constructed in Canada, and as more oil sands are processed, the need for hydrogen will continue to increase," said Scott Sherman, Air Products' vice president and general manager for Energy and Process Industries worldwide. "We're very pleased to extend our relationship with Petro-Canada and are poised to grow with the Canadian oil sands industry."

The Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan area is one of three key Canadian refining centers. In addition to the two plants to be built in Edmonton, Air Products is also constructing a hydrogen plant in Sarnia, Ontario to be on- stream in May 2006. These projects are among additional Air Products hydrogen facilities currently being built in Port Arthur and Baytown, Texas; Convent, Louisiana; and Joliet, Illinois, to be operational in 2006.

The second Edmonton hydrogen facility will be the 28th built under the global alliance between Air Products and Technip. This alliance continues to provide the worldwide refining industry with competitive technology, plus world-class safety with "over the fence" hydrogen supply. Technip provides the design and construction for hydrogen generation units while Air Products provides the gas separation technology. Air Products, through its extensive operating network, and Technip, from its large reference base, also bring effective operational and engineering knowledge to "design-in" high reliability and efficiency. The plants are operated and maintained by Air Products under long-term agreements with customers.

About Air Products
Air Products (NYSE:APD) serves customers in technology, energy, healthcare and industrial markets worldwide with a unique portfolio of products, services and solutions, providing atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials and chemical intermediates. Founded in 1940, Air Products has built leading positions in key growth markets such as semiconductor materials, refinery hydrogen, home healthcare services, natural gas liquefaction, and advanced coatings and adhesives. The company is recognized for its innovative culture, operational excellence and commitment to safety and the environment and is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability and FTSE4Good Indices. The company has annual revenues of $8.1 billion, operations in over 30 countries, and over 20,000 employees around the globe. For more information, visit http://www.airproducts.com/.

About Technip
With a workforce of about 20,000 people, Technip ranks among the top five corporations in the field of oil, gas and petrochemical engineering, construction and services. Headquartered in Paris, the Group is listed in New York and Paris. The Group's main operations and engineering centers and business units are located in France, Italy, Germany, the UK, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, the USA, Brazil, Abu-Dhabi, China, India, Malaysia and Australia. In support of its activities, the Group manufactures flexible pipes and umbilicals, and builds offshore platforms in its manufacturing plants and fabrication yards in France, Brazil, the UK, the USA, Finland and Angola, and has a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction. Technip is the leading supplier of hydrogen production facilities with more than 200 references worldwide. More information can be found at http://technip.com/.

About Petro-Canada
Petro-Canada is one of Canada's largest oil and gas companies, operating in both the upstream and downstream sectors of the industry in Canada and internationally. Its common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PCA and on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PCZ.

Source: Air Products
CONTACT: Media Inquiries - Art George of Air Products, +1-610-481-1340,
georgeaf@airproducts.com, or Laurence Bricq of Technip, +33 (0) 1 47 78 26 37,
or fax, +33 (0) 1 47 78 24 33, lbricq@technip.com; Investor Inquiries - Philip
Sproger of Air Products, +1-610-481-7461, sprogepc@airproducts.com

Web site: http://technip.com/
Web site: http://www.airproducts.com/

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