FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Public Service Announcement

Date: August 3, 2009
Contact: Drift River Spokesman
Phone: (907) 632-0666

Unified Command to hold community meeting in Kenai

Editor's note: The media is invited to attend but asked to restrict questions as this time is designed to address concerns from the community.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Unified Command, Drift River Terminal Coordination, will meet with Kenai Peninsula residents Monday, August 24, to provide an update on the planned Cook Inlet Pipe Line Company interim operations. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Challenger Learning Center and will be hosted by Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council. Other participants include the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Homer residents can meet at the Quarterdeck B, Land's Inn. To participate by phone, dial 888-387-8686. The access code is 5989115#.

Piping at the terminal has been reconfigured to allow crude oil stored at Granite Point and Trading Bay to bypass the storage tanks at Drift River and be pumped directly onto a tanker docked at the Christy Lee loading platform. The current plan calls for no additional oil to be stored at Drift River Terminal.

Plans are in place to have the Overseas Boston tanker remove most of the ballast water and remaining crude from the three active tanks around mid-August.

The Drift River Oil Terminal was closed down last spring following mud slides triggered by the eruption of Mt. Redoubt. Some 4.5 million gallons of oil was safely removed from the facility and freshwater was pumped into the two tanks containing oil to protect them from flooding. Approximately 715,000 gallons of oil remain in the tanks.

It is a testament to good planning and good engineering that the shutdown was accomplished with no injuries and not a drop of oil on the ground, said Capt. John Kenyon, federal on-scene coordinator, Unified Command.

Rod Ficken, vice president of Cook Inlet Pipe Line Company (CIPL), Unified Command added that there are ongoing discussions about what this facility will look like in the future.

Unified Command plans to stand down as CIPL resumes reconfigured pipeline operations which will bypass the tanks at Drift River.

Alaska Volcano Observatory Web Link: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

United States Coast Guard Alaska Web Link: http://www.uscgalaska.com/go/site/780/

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Web Link: http://www.dec.state.ak.us/

Contact:
Santana Gonzalez Chevron Pipe Line Company 713.432.3883	Lana Johnson/Casey Sullivan Marketing Solutions, Inc. 907.569.7070