IPSCO Not Expecting Oil Country Upturn Until Fourth Quarter 

Lisle, Illinois, September 14, 2000 -- "Continuing wet weather and the resultant low level of oil and gas well drilling in western Canada will once again mean profit expectations for IPSCO's (NYSE: IPS) third quarter should be tempered" Roger Phillips, the company's president and chief executive officer will tell financial analysts in Toronto today. "This is a frustrating time for us. The pent up demand for oil and particularly new sources of natural gas is well known and we are prepared for a boom in sales which will come sooner or later and which could well last several years. We can't let our customers down at the start and in the meantime we just will have to grit our teeth and wait." Phillips said that after winter freezeup moving rigs around would become very easy and the rate of drilling would be sure to increase but any increase before then would be problematic.

Phillips added that original forecasts for the third quarter had foreseen a softening in plate and hot rolled coil prices but that this would be more than counteracted by increased sales of the higher value tubular goods used for oil and gas wells. In July IPSCO had warned that the weather trend meant that this assumption was optimistic. However, expectations for some weather improvement for the balance of the quarter has not occurred. IPSCO said that other factors were also negative such as increased costs at the Regina steelworks in July due to power cut backs and somewhat higher costs for the production of an order for high strength plate for a U.S. line pipe manufacturer incurred at the Montpelier, Iowa, steelworks. "We took this order with a view to the future knowing it would have high development costs associated with it but it has been somewhat more difficult than we thought," Phillips noted.

"Looking to the fourth quarter we still expect a turnaround. The winter drilling season, always the strongest of the year, should see a return to levels of last January when activity was almost double that of recent weeks. The pricing situation for plate and hot rolled coil is very much a question mark but domestic coil prices in both Canada and the United States seem to be at or near bottom, having already fallen precipitously," Phillips said. Throughput rates at the Montpelier steelworks in the fourth quarter are expected to average somewhat higher as slower processing light gauge plate was now being produced at the companies coil processing plants rather than at Montpelier and the high strength plate order will have been completed.

This news release contains forward looking information with respect to IPSCO's operations and beliefs. Actual results may differ from these forward looking statements due to numerous factors, including weather conditions, the affect of weather on the ability to drill, drilling rig availability, demand for oil and gas, the extent of sales of oil country tubular goods, the duration of electrical cutbacks, production costs and timing for line pipe steel production at the Montpelier Steelworks, prices for plate and hot rolled coil, and throughput rates at the Montpelier Steelworks. These and other factors are outlined in IPSCO's regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those in IPSCO's Annual Report for 1999, its M, D & A and Form 40-F.

Company Contact:
Bob Stefaniuk
Vice President of IPSCO Enterprises Inc.
Tel: 630-810-4787

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