Bernard Vossier News

Stolt Offshore S.A. announced the award of contracts from Statoil and Norsk Hydro to the Stolt Halliburton Joint Venture for pipeline repairs in Norway. This joint venture was originally formed in 1995 for servicing the Statoil Hyperbaric Welding and Diving Services Contingency Contract and renewed in July 2000 for five years. The first contract is for pipeline repairs on the Aasgard field for Statoil and is valued at $100 million. expected to be completed in April 2002. The second contract is for pipeline repairs on the Tune field pipeline for Norsk Hydro and is valued at $6 million. This contract will use the pipeline repair system owned by the Statpipe License and the Oseberg Transporation System and administered by Statoil.

Stolt Offshore reported that, following the TotalFinaElf announcement of first oil production from the Girassol field, that a major milestone had been reached on this unique field development on which Stolt Offshore has been working for four years. The operator of the field is TotalFinaElf with a 40 percent interest. Other partners are Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited (20 percent), BP (16.67 percent), Statoil (13.3 percent) and Norsk Hydro (10 percent). Girassol is being developed under a production sharing agreement with Sonangol, the national oil company of Angola. Stolt Offshore has been involved in two parts of the development.

Stolt Offshore S.A. has secured a contract from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Nigeria for the ForcadosYokri offshore development in the Niger Delta. The $245 million contract has been awarded to a consortium of Stolt Offshore and the Nigerian company Suffolk which is part of the Adamac group. The Stolt Offshore share of the contract is $110 million. The Forcados Yokri project includes the expansion and refurbishment of existing shallow water oil and gas production and process facilities and the fabrication and the installation of a new production platform with a 250 tonne jacket and 1,300 tonne topsides. Stolt Offshore is responsible for all of the engineering…

Stolt Offshore S.A. announced the award of the $660 million Sanha Condensate contract from CABGOC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Texaco, to a consortium of Stolt Offshore and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (DSME), of which the Stolt Offshore share is $240 million, $15 million of which is expected to be in 2002. The contract is for an EPIC project for the engineering, fabrication and installation of five offshore platforms with two linking bridges, the modification of three existing platforms and the installation of 100 kms of subsea pipelines ranging in diameter from four to thirty inches, in an average water depth of 100 meters. A substantial part of the platform fabrication work will be undertaken in the Stolt Offshore managed Sonamet yard at Lobito in Angola.

Stolt Offshore S.A. signed a letter of intent to acquire a majority ownership of Paragon Engineering Services Inc. (PES) of Houston from Kenneth Arnold, the current controlling shareholder. A new holding company, Paragon Engineering Services International (PESI), will be established which will operate from the existing PES office in Houston and through a new company, Paragon Europe (PE), in Paris. This represents an investment by Stolt Offshore of approximately $13 million. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of this year. PES provides front end engineering and design studies, detailed engineering, procurement, construction and project management services to customers for both offshore and onshore production facilities and pipelines.

Stolt Offshore S.A. signed a letter of intent to acquire a majority ownership of Paragon Engineering Services Inc. (PES) of Houston from Mr. Kenneth Arnold, the current controlling shareholder. A new holding company, Paragon Engineering Services International (PESI), will be established which will operate from the existing PES office in Houston and through a new company, Paragon Europe (PE), in Paris. This represents an investment by Stolt Offshore of approximately $13 million. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of this year. PES provides front end engineering and design studies, detailed engineering, procurement, construction and project management services to customers for both offshore and onshore production facilities and pipelines.

Stolt Offshore S.A. of Mexico. about breakeven. to retire from his position as CEO effective immediately. Vossier will continue to serve as a member of the Board. The Board of Directors has commenced a search for a new CEO and appointed on an interim basis as CEO Niels G. Stolt-Nielsen, a member of the Board since 1999 and currently also CEO of Stolt Offshore's parent company, Stolt-Nielsen S.A. Operational problems have been experienced mainly on three projects. forecasting higher than expected fabrication and installation costs. The company has also seen cost over-runs on the Burullus Scarab and Saffron project in Egypt. defective and also difficulties with a nominated sub-contractor requiring additional engineering, management and supervision costs. pipeline burial problems.