John Akitt, vice president of Exxon Chemicals, agreed.

The particular combination of skills and financial support by Exxon Chemicals created a unique situation which WWF thought would be beneficial for a particular project.

Exxon Chemicals donated £40,000 and other companies also donated goods, services or money.

Two of the largest companies, Pecten, a Shell subsidiary, and Exxon Chemical, had been very cooperative, he said.

"A penny a pound in our business is worth $50 million a year," said Irwin Levowitz, vice president for polyethylene at Exxon Chemical.

In 1999, the Infineum company (a joint project of Exxon Chemical, Shell International Chemicals and Shell Chemical) took over operation of the chemical plant.

Her mother is a transportation analyst in Houston for Exxon Chemicals of America.

She studied chemical engineering at Imperial College, London, then worked for Exxon Chemicals for 15 years at the Fawley Refinery.

Contracts with Exxon Chemicals soon took members of the team to Belgium and additional staff were recruited to meet client needs in sixteen countries including the United States.

The total number of members and licensees now exceeds 200 in 28 countries, including major international companies like Exxon, BP, Dow Chemical and BASF.