L'Air Liquide SA has commissioned the carbon monoxide unit, handing it over to the customer, Saudi International Petrochemicals Company (Sipchem). This new carbon monoxide unit is located on the industrial complex of Jubail City, in eastern Saudi Arabia, near the Arabic Gulf. This project was awarded in 2006 to Air Liquide and Lurgi. The carbon monoxide unit designed and built by the Engineering and Construction teams of Air Liquide, will have a production capacity of 335,000 tones per year. The production of carbon monoxide calls upon the combination of very high temperature technologies (+1200°C) as well as very low cryogenic temperature (-190°C). Those two processes are mastered by the Group and will be integrated in this very large unit. The carbon monoxide produced in the unit will primarily serve as feedstock for the production of acetic acid used for the production of Polyvinyl Acetate, which has applications in water-based paints, adhesives and in the processing of paper and textiles.

L'Air Liquide SA has signed a long-term contract to supply Shaanxi Yulin Natural Gas Chemical Industry (Yutianhua) with oxygen and nitrogen from a large air separation unit (ASU). The company will invest about €60 million ($89.5 million) in the ASU, which will have a production capacity of 2,700 tonnes of oxygen per day. The unit will be built next to Yutianhua's site at the Yuheng Chemical Industrial Park, which is in Shaanxi province's Yulin City. The company did not disclose when the ASU will start production.

L'Air Liquide SA would invest USD 70 million (EUR 47 million) in a new oxygen and nitrogen plant in Qatar. The investment follows a long-term oxygen supply contract that the French group's subsidiary Gasal has signed with Oryx GTL, a joint venture of South African Sasol and Qatar Petroleum. The new production unit, which has to be operational at the end of 2010, will have a capacity of 750 t of oxygen a day. The investment is another sign of Air Liquide's commitment to the development of emerging economies, which are one of the group's growth drivers, senior executive vice president.