Power failure at Qatalum causes sudden shutdown

The Qatalum aluminium plant in Qatar suffered a sudden shutdown of primary
aluminium production, due to a power outage that occurred at 04:40 hrs on the
9(th) of August 2010.

Power was out for almost five hours, leading to a significant drop in
temperature in the reduction cells and making it impossible to resume metal
production. The incident caused no personal injuries or any known uncontrolled
emissions.

The cause of the power loss is yet to be determined. The failure affected both
the connection to the national power grid and Qatalum's own power plant. Even
though power has been restored, the liquid electrolyte in most of the 444
affected cells in operation at the time of the incident is solidified, and these
cells need to be prepared for restart. The remaining 260 unaffected cells are on
track for normal start-up.

The ramp-up of the Qatalum aluminium plant, which was scheduled to be completed
in the fourth quarter this year, will be delayed as a result of the incident.
Qatalum is working on a revised start-up plan.

Qatalum will investigate the cause of the incident in cooperation with local
authorities.

Qatalum, with a design capacity of 585,000 tonnes of primary aluminium, is a
50/50 joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Norwegian aluminium company
Hydro.

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements acc. to §5-12 vphl
(Norwegian Securities Trading Act)


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