Eastern expansion

announced today that it will add 130,000 tons per year of capacity to its Exxsol hydrocarbon fluids plant in

. This will bring

fluids production to over 500,000 tons per year. Commercial quantities of the product from the new facility are expected to be available in the fourth quarter 2008.

According to ExxonMobil, this increased capacity is designed to meet the demand for differentiated hydrocarbon fluid products, which is growing annually at an average rate of five to six percent in Asia Pacific.

Exxsol fluids are specifically formulated to meet the broad needs of ExxonMobil Chemical customers for use in applications such as drilling mud oil, metal working, polymer processing, pharmaceutical processing, industrial cleaning, adhesives and coatings.

Asia’s increasing demand is a result of strong industrial growth, accompanied by heightened health, safety and environmental requirements of GHS (Globally Harmonized System), the international agreement to classify products uniformly, and REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of CHemicals), the European legislation regulating the use of chemicals.