LONDON, UK and CAMBRIDGE, Mass. USA (February 20)-- BP Oil International (BP) and Aspen Technology (NASDQ:AZPN) have formed a business and technology alliance focused on improving BP's refining efficiency and profitability. The initial five-year program of work to install and maintain AspenTech's refinery automation technology is believed to be the largest initiative of its kind ever undertaken by a major oil company.

"At BP Oil, we have set a target to improve significantly our competitive position by the year 2000. Our strategy includes building strong relationships with suppliers of service and technology. The alliance with AspenTech provides us with a reliable and cost-effective way of helping us to achieve much of this goal within our refining business," said Jean-Claude Montanier, BP Oil's Manufacturing Champion and head of the Oil Technology Network. He added, "The alignment of AspenTech's Life-cycle Manufacturing with our own Optimal Commercial Refining Vision (OCRV) has the potential for even more benefits in the longer term."

BP's OCRV focuses on the commercial impact of process control and systems technology on the refining business. The goal is to achieve a profit improvement of $0.50 per barrel of crude oil feed from a variety of initiatives, including this one. The immediate aim of the alliance is to realize a component of this target, and to provide a technical and organizational base to sustain the benefits and help capture the rest.

AspenTech Chairman and CEO Larry Evans commented, "This alliance is a significant evolution in our long-standing relationship with BP, where our work had traditionally been project-based. Both companies are committed to this new level of cooperation which will benefit the bottom-line profitability of each."

The initial program provides BP Oil with the opportunity to access AspenTech's control and optimization software (including RT-OPT(R) and DMCplusTM) and related engineering and business services at its wholly-owned and joint-venture refineries worldwide. Work will commence immediately at three refineries.

About BP
BP today is an international company, with major operations in over 100 countries - in Europe, the USA, Australasia, and parts of Africa, and is expanding in others, notably South East Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. Its key strengths are in oil and gas exploration and production; the refining, marketing and supply of petroleum products; and the manufacturing and marketing of chemicals. It supports all its businesses with high quality research and technology. For more information check http://www.bp.com.

About AspenTech
Aspen Technology, Inc. is a leading supplier of simulation and automation solutions for process manufacturing plants in industries such as chemical, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, electric power, pulp and paper, and metals. Process manufacturers use AspenTech's solutions to improve the way they design, operate and manage their plants. AspenTech employs more than 1,100 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with offices in 16 countries worldwide. 

AspenTech and the AspenTech logo are registered trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All other marks are trademarks of their respective owners. 

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