Contact:Mr. Pavol Parak, Slovnaft, a.s., Vlcie hrdlo, 824 12 Bratislava, Slovak Republic, Phone: 011-421-7-245-049, Fax: 011-421-7-244-803

C -- FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR THE NEW SLOVNAFT POLYPROPYLENE UNIT POC Evangela Kunene, USTDA, 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22209-2131, Tel: (703) 875-4357, Fax: (703) 875-4009 Feasibility Study for the New Slovnaft Polypropylene Unit. The Grantee invites submission of qualifications and proposal data (collectively referred to as the "Proposal") from interested U.S. firms which are qualified on the basis of experience and capability to develop a feasibility study for modernizing polypropylene production facilities in the Slovak Republic owned by Slovnaft, a.s. Slovnaft, a.s. is a crude oil refinery and petrochemical company which has almost 5000 employees and is located in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. It was founded in 1895 as Apollo Refinery and in 1949 it became Slovnaft, a.s.. It became a joint-stock company in 1992 and currently has approximately 90% private ownership with the Slovak government holding the remaining 10% of the shares. The company has four divisions: Refinery Unit; Petrochemicals and Plastics; Lube Oil Production; and Utilities. The Petrochemical Division produces ethylene and propylene for use as feed stocks for Slovnaft's polyethylene and polypropylene plants. Revenues in 1995 were over $1 billion. The Slovnaft, a.s. plant in Bratislava, Slovakia also produces polypropylene pellets using propylene produced in their own plant. The current polypropylene plant consists of two units, the first unit was constructed in 1973 and has a capacity of 30,000 metric tons per year. The second unit was constructed in 1984 and has a capacity of 40,000 metric tons per year (MPTY). Both units utilize Amoco/Chisso technology. The plant is currently operating at full capacity consuming all the available feed stock. The two existing units utilize old technology and cannot be modified to increase their capacity. Therefore, an entirely new plant utilizing modern technology will need to be constructed. With the completion of the new heavy petroleum residual upgrading project and revamp of ethylene plant in 1999, there will be sufficient additional feed stock available to increase the polypropylene production to 160,000 -- 170,000 million tons per year. The proposed feasibility study will be oriented towards examining the economics of constructing a new facility. The report will cover the following topics: -- Review and refine existing Slovnaft's polypropylene market analysis and establish and/or confirm the proposed new plant capacity; -- Establish a basis for the study; feed, product, utilities, composition and battery limit condition; -- Establish feed, product, utility and labor cost and economic criteria for the project payout; -- Review all available polypropylene technologies; and -- Develop technical and economic details for all appropriate technologies in sufficient detail to recommend a specific technology. For the selected technology: -- Generate overall heat and material balances. -- Complete conceptual design including the following with sufficient detail for definitive costing for the proposed plant: -- Process flow diagram; -- Equipment specifications; -- Utility balance; -- Instrument data sheets; -- Preliminary engineering diagrams; -- Perform preliminary environmental assessments, evaluate environmental impacts, establish permit requirements, and make emission and control assessments. -- Develop definitive costing for the selected process (+/- 20%) . -- Perform a financial and economic analysis for the project, tabulate local and import cost elements. -- Prepare a Final Report in two volumes (suitable for submission to a financial institution to obtain financing): Volume I -- Financial; Volume II -- Technical. The U.S. firm selected will be paid in U.S. dollars from a $300,000 grant to the Grantee from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA). A detailed Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes requirements for the Proposal, the Terms of Reference, and a background definitional mission/desk study report are available from TDA, at 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22209-2131. Requests for the RFP should be faxed to the IRC, TDA at 703-875-4009. In the fax, please include your firm's name, contact person, address, and telephone number. Some firms have found that RFP materials sent by U.S. mail do not reach them in time for preparation of an adequate response. Firms that want TDA to use an overnight delivery service should include the name of the delivery service and your firm's account number in the request for the RFP. Firms that want to send a courier to TDA to retrieve the RFP should allow one hour after faxing the request to TDA before scheduling a pick-up. Please note that no telephone requests for the RFP will be honored. Please check your internal fax verification receipt. Because of the large number of RFP requests, TDA cannot respond to requests for fax verification. Requests for RFPs received before 4:00 PM will be mailed the same day. Requests received after 4:00 PM will be mailed the following day. Please check with your courier and/or mail room before calling TDA. Only U.S. firms and individuals may bid on this TDA financed activity. Interested firms, their subcontractors and employees of allparticipants must qualify under TDA's nationality requirements as of the due date for submission of qualifications and proposals and, if selected to carry out the TDA-financed activity, must continue to meet such requirements throughout the duration of the TDA-financed activity. All goods and services to be provided by the selected firm shall have their nationality, source and origin in the U.S. or host country. The U.S. firm may use subcontractors from the host country for up to 20 percent of the TDA grant amount. Details of TDA's nationality requirements and mandatory contract clauses are also included in the RFP. Interested U.S. firms should submit their Proposal in English directly to the Grantee by 4:00 PM, August 28, 1997, at the above address. Evaluation criteria for the Proposal are included in the RFP. Price will not be a factor in contractor selection, and therefore, cost proposals should NOT be submitted. The Grantee reserves the right to reject any and/or all Proposals. The Grantee also reserves the right to contract with the selected firm for subsequent work related to the project. The Grantee is not bound to pay for any costs associated with the preparation and submission of Proposals. (0209)

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