HMEL Selects IBM as Strategic Business and Technology Partner for Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bathinda, Punjab

IBM to Design and Implement a state-of-the-art Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to Maximize Operational Efficiency

New Delhi, India -- August 25, 2010: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that HPCLMittal Energy Limited (HMEL), a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, an Indian government-owned enterprise, and Mittal Energy Investments Pte Ltd, Singapore, a Lakshmi N Mittal Group Company, has selected IBM as its strategic partner in the design and implementation of a state-of-the-art Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for their zero residue refinery. HMEL is investing more than US$4 billion to build the green refinery, which will be able to process 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Located in Bathinda, in the state of Punjab, India, the energy efficient, environment-friendly, high distillate yielding complex refinery on commissioning shall produce clean fuels and polypropylene by processing all types of crudes. Being a green-field venture, HMEL needed business processes and applications to commission and operate the grass-roots refinery and allied facilities. HMELs endeavor is to have processes built around leading practices and implemented on best-in-class applications. HMEL selected IBM as its strategic MES partner to design the processes for manufacturing, select the applications and manage the implementation of the packages and build a common integration and reporting framework for HMEL. Through the 1.5 year, multi-million dollar agreement, IBM will integrate all of HMELs operations, ranging from manufacturing to marketing and distribution. Having a single, unified view of business operations and access to real-time information across all systems will help HMEL operate the new refinery with maximum efficiency and return on investments, and improve decision making in such areas as energy and quality management, planning and scheduling, trade and risk management, and physical security. It is critical for HMEL to establish processes that help the company get a single, comprehensive view of its operations and also bring in greater efficiency into the system," said Richard Dirckx, Vice President (Operations), HMEL. "IBM understood our needs and has the global expertise, knowledge repositories of leading practices, processes and key performance indicators to support our goal of becoming one of the smartest refineries in the world. In fact, HMEL will be among only a handful of refineries to start operations with the full suite of MES applications." The best-in-class applications supporting the new refinery will be integrated using the IBM Chemical and Petroleum Integrated Information Framework, a technology platform based on open industry standards that will bring together advanced information

management, analytics and process integration software from IBM and other suppliers. HMEL will use business intelligence and performance management software, including performance dashboards, to monitor performance, set targets, and optimize resources. It is an exciting opportunity for IBM to work with HMEL and help them in this key project, said Vanitha Narayanan, Managing Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India/South Asia. We strongly believe that with our domain experts and global experience, we will help HMEL transform the way information is gathered, combined and analyzed. The best-of-breed solutions approach will help them discover new ways to improve production efficiencies and be among the best refineries globally creating a true smarter refinery," said Vanitha. The refinery is expected to be commissioned by early 2011. About HMEL For more information on HMEL, please visit http://www.hmel.in/ About IBM For more information about IBM and Smarter Oil and Gas, please visit http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/oilandgas. Information about the IBM Chemical and Petroleum Integrated Information Framework can be found at http://www01.ibm.com/software/industry/chemicals_petroleum/.

Contact Information
IBM Supriyaranjan Kar Corporate Communications +91-9717443337 supriya.kar@in.ibm.com VOX PR Satyajit Borah/ Saraswati Mohan VOX Public Relations +91 -9899392940/ 09899038451 satyajit.borah@voxpr.co.in