Letter from the Site Leader — Bart Gliatta

Taking a look back at 2003, Seadrift Operations found itself challenged primarily with the same two significant economic issues facing not only our industry but our neighbors as well — high fuel prices and an unstable economy.

Both required our folks on site to rely on agility and decisive action to reinforce our competitive position while not compromising our commitment and pursuit of our environmental, health and safety goals.

I am proud to share with you that through out the year, our employees and partners responded positively and quickly. The high fuel prices, combined with the age of our Olefins plant made it uncompetitive. As a result, we completed the permanent shutdown of this facility in September. Our site employees, through diligence and hard work, completed this project on time and without any serious issues.

Let me reassure you that our site continues to be focused on conducting our operations responsibly despite these tough and unsettled economic times. The safety performance of the site was unprecedented. In addition, we extended our time without a lost workday case to nearly 5 million hours in 2003! This is one of our key objectives — everyone goes home safely every day.

In addition to our very stellar safety performance, we have positioned ourselves to make good on our commitment to improving our waste and our emission targeted reductions.

With 2003 at a close, we remain confident that we are on the right track to remain an active and trusted member of the community. In 2004, Seadrift Operations will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and we will continue to work hard at pressing home the advantages we gained despite a tough 2003. We know that agility and focus – two of our site's employees solid virtues — will guide us to not just meet, but exceed our customers' and community's expectations.

The years ahead, I think most of us would agree, will continue to be challenging, but also exciting, as the global economy changes.

Thanks for taking the time to look through our Public Report. We feel we have a great deal to be proud of and we look forward to meeting the future challenges — responsibly and safely.

Bart Gliatta
Vice President and Director of Operations