BATON ROUGE, La., Dec 16, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) today announced that its subsidiary, Shaw Maintenance, Inc., has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) as a STAR site in the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) for work done at the Air Products Escambia Plant, located in Pace, Florida.

J.M. Bernhard, Jr., Shaw's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer stated, "We are extremely proud on being named to STAR status at the Air Products Escambia site. We believe that our overall commitment to health and safety and the outstanding dedication of every employee working at the site is fundamental to our success as a company."

OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program was established to promote effective worksite health and safety. OSHA sets performance-based criteria for qualified health and safety programs and invites sites to apply for VPP status. A company's approval into VPP is OSHA's official recognition of the company's outstanding accomplishments toward its health and safety programs. In addition, Shaw's Air Products Escambia maintenance jobsite underwent a four-day audit which included employee interviews, as well as a rigorous onsite evaluation by a team of OSHA experts before being named a STAR site, the highest level of VPP status.

The Shaw Group currently has eight STAR worksites that participate in the Voluntary Protection Program. In addition to the Air Products, Pace, Florida site, Shaw has six Oxy Vinyls' STAR sites in Texas and one STAR site in North Carolina at Elementis Chromium-Carolina Star.

The Shaw Group Inc. is a leading global provider of technology, engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, fabrication, manufacturing, consulting, remediation, and facilities management services for government and private sector clients in the power, process, environmental, infrastructure and emergency response markets. A Fortune 500 company, The Shaw Group is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and employs approximately 17,000 people at its offices and operations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.shawgrp.com.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for certain forward-looking statements. The statements contained herein that are not historical facts (including without limitation statements to the effect that the Company or its management "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "plans," or other similar expressions) and statements related to revenues, earnings, backlog, or other financial information or results are forward-looking statements based on the Company's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on the Company. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting the Company will be those anticipated by the Company. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) and assumptions and are subject to change based upon various factors. Should one or more of such risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. A description of some of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements can be found in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Form 10-K and Form 10-Q reports, and on the Company's website under the heading "Forward-Looking Statements". These documents are also available from the Securities and Exchange Commission or from the Investor Relations department of Shaw. For more information on the company and announcements it makes from time to time on a regional basis visit our website at www.shawgrp.com.

SOURCE: The Shaw Group Inc.

The Shaw Group Inc., Baton Rouge
Chris D. Sammons, 225-932-2546