IMMEDIATE RELEASE                December 8, 2000

DULUTH, Minn., U.S.A.-The second of two ships bringing several enormous pieces of equipment built in Japan and destined for Canada via record-setting rail shipments arrived in the Port of Duluth-Superior Thursday, December 7, aboard the Dutch vessel Fairlift.

The unique Rotterdam-based vessel arrived under the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge at 11:45 p.m. She proceeded to Duluth's Clure Public Marine Terminal with equipment destined for the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a $3.5 billion oil sands mine, extraction and upgrading development currently under construction in northern Alberta.

Jumbo, a heavy-lift shipping company headquartered in Rotterdam, arranged for arrival of the equipment via two ships outfitted with deck cranes capable of handling heavy loads. This shipment is from Muroran and Kobe, Japan, as was the first shipment, which arrived in Port October 13 aboard Jumbo's vessel Stellanova.

Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc., will offload 56 pieces of equipment from the Fairlift, seven of which weigh in excess of 500 tons. The first shipment of 36 pieces contained five in excess of 500 tons. The largest pieces measure approximately 14 feet (about four meters) in diameter and 75 feet (twenty-two meters) in length.

The majority of the equipment will be transferred onto special12-axle railcars, only 28 of which are available in North America. Sixteen of these cars will be used for this shipment (twelve were used for the first shipment). The remainder of the equipment will be moved by truck.

"These shipments represent the largest multiple loads ever carried over U.S. and Canadian railways," said Ed Clarke, materials management representative for Fluor Daniel Canada, Inc., transportation contractor for the project.

"Duluth was selected as the North American port of entry because of a combination of its excellent facilities for dimensional cargoes and the rail clearances between the Port and the job site."

This equipment is scheduled to be shipped December 14 on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad from Duluth, and the Canadian National to Alberta. The first shipment of equipment departed the Port via rail on October 13 and arrived in northern Alberta on October 29.

Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc., has established an excellent reputation for handling heavy-lift cargoes. This November alone the company handled turbine generator equipment from Sweden destined for Chaska, Minn.; dimensional ductwork from Bremen, Germany, destined for Trimont, Minn.; an apron conveyor system manufactured in Bremen needed for a crane being built in Alberta, Canada; two 86-ton pieces of a stone crusher manufactured in Pennsylvania and destined for an oil sands project in Alberta.

In the past few years Lake Superior Warehousing has been chosen as the conduit for such large projects as oil rig equipment built in Canada and bound for Stavanger, Norway; pulp mill machinery from Finland destined for Potlatch Corporation as part of its $500 million dollar expansion in Cloquet, Minn.; piping manufactured by Duluth's BendTec, Inc., destined for the Island of Sumbawa in the Indonesian Archipelago as part of a gold mine project.

"Duluth is known as a 'can-do' port," said Gary Nicholson, Lake Superior Warehousing president. "Clearances for oversize loads from Duluth are often the best available whether the product is moving via rail or truck. Coupled with the strong work ethic of Lake Superior Warehousing's employees, shippers of oversized cargo are provided with a powerful combination of reasons for choosing Duluth."

The largest single loads carried on North American railroads also moved through the Port of Duluth-Superior. In October 1990 two Japanese-built cylinders destined for the BiProvincial Upgrader oil project in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, arrived at the Clure Public Marine Terminal aboard the Dutch vessel Starman Asia. The 773-ton cylinders were transported to Canada on the Asea Brown Boveri 36-axle Schnabel car, the world's largest capacity railcar according to the Association of American Railroads.

The 329-foot (100-meter) long Fairlift, built in 1990 at Ysselwerf B.V., Capelle aan den IJssel, Netherlands, is a heavy-load carrier owned by Fairplay Heavy Lift B.V., Rotterdam. The 314-foot (96-meter) long heavy-load carrier Stellanova was built in 1996 at the same shipyard. She is owned by Kahn Shipping, Ltd., Rotterdam. Local agent for both vessels is Guthrie-Hubner, Inc., Duluth.

The Athabasca Oil Sands Project, scheduled for completion in the fall of 2002, involves removing sand from the earth that is impregnated with oil, separating the two and then using new technology to upgrade the oil to a usable product.

Athabasca Oil Sands Project officials indicate that the three targeted reserves of oil contain more oil than the entire reserves left in Saudi Arabia. Officials say the synthetic crude produced will enable refiners to generate very clean, high quality gasoline and diesel fuel with low sulphur levels.

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CONTACTS: Gary Nicholson, Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc., 218-727-6646
Ed Clarke, Fluor Daniel Canada, Inc., 403-259-1199

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