INEOS NOVA and SEEA Polymers Announce Plans for New EPS Plant

INEOS NOVA and SEEA Polymers today announced they have signed a
letter of intent to form a 50/50 joint venture to build and operate a
new expandable polystyrene (EPS) plant in Romania. The proposed
facility will have production capacity of 100 KT per year and is
expected to start operations by late 2009.

"This new plant will be located in the heart of one of the highest
growth areas for EPS in the world," said Martin Pugh, Managing
Director Europe for INEOS NOVA. "We expect this plant to manufacture a
full range of products and be the lowest cost producer of EPS in
Europe."

Florin Andrei, CEO of SEEA Polymers said, "We are pleased to bring
the plastics industry expertise of our fast growing Romanian based
company to this joint venture with INEOS NOVA, the European EPS market
leader. We believe the combination will enable the new joint venture
to quickly establish leadership in the region."

Growth rates for EPS consumption in the region are projected to
continue to be more than 10 percent per year. The proposed plant will
be located on a site owned by SEEA Polymers in Medgidia, Romania, near
the Black Sea. The location will enable the new plant to enjoy
reliable, low-cost logistics.

Following completion of final market and capital plans the two
companies expect to negotiate and finalise a binding agreement by the
end of the first quarter of 2008.

INEOS NOVA is committed to being recognised as the global leader
in styrenics. Our employees manufacture and market styrene and
styrenic polymers with a dedicated focus on health, safety, security
and environmental stewardship. INEOS NOVA is a joint venture of INEOS
and NOVA Chemicals.

Visit us on the internet at www.ineos-nova.com

SEEA Polymers is an entrepreneurial plastics manufacturing and
processing company created by a group of Romanian investors led by Mr
Florin Andrei. Mr Andrei has extensive experience in the domestic and
regional petrochemical market in his previous position as Chief
Executive Officer of Rompetrol Petrochemicals. Before joining
Rompetrol he held a number of positions over 10 years at Dow Corning
and The Dow Chemical Company.

Forward-Looking Information

The information in this news release contains forward-looking
statements concerning INEOS NOVA´s and SEEA Polymers´ proposed 50/50
joint venture to build and operate a new EPS plant in Romania,
including statements regarding the plant´s expected production
capacity, start-up date, product offerings and costs of production,
the projected growth rate for EPS consumption in the plant´s region
and the intention of the parties to finalize a binding agreement. By
their nature, forward-looking statements require INEOS NOVA to make
assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. There
is significant risk that predictions, forecasts, conclusions and
projections will not prove to be accurate, that INEOS NOVA´s
assumptions may not be correct and that actual results may differ
materially from such predictions, forecasts, conclusions or
projections. INEOS NOVA´s forward-looking statements are expressly
qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. In addition,
the forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this
news release, and INEOS NOVA undertakes no obligation to publicly
update these forward-looking statements to reflect new information,
subsequent events or otherwise.