IMMEDIATE RELEASE             April 11, 2003

May 1, 2003
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Duluth, Minn., U.S.A.—The third of what will now be four ships bringing in enormous pieces of equipment manufactured in Spain and Italy and destined for Canada arrived April 30 in the Port of Duluth-Superior aboard the Dutch vessel Fairload.

Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc., assisted with unloading the 49 dimensional pieces at Duluth's Clure Public Marine Terminal. Destined for the Syncrude UE-1 oil sands project near Ft. McMurray, Alberta, the equipment included five 95-ton, 18-foot (5.5-meter) wide pieces that will move by truck, and 44 pieces weighing between 20 and 160 tons and ranging in length from 40 to 155 feet (12.2 to 47.2 meters) that will move by train.

Jumbo, a Rotterdam heavy-lift shipping company, arranged for arrival of the equipment via four ships (instead of three originally planned) outfitted with deck cranes capable of handling heavy loads.

The first shipment arrived in Port August 3, 2002, also aboard Jumbo's 314-foot (95.7-meter) vessel Fairload. It consisted of 10 pressure cylinders manufactured in Spain measuring up to 147 feet (44.8 meters) long and weighing as much as 131 metric tons that required four special eight-axle railcars supplied by TTX Corp., Chicago.

The second shipment of equipment (manufactured in Italy) arrived November 8, 2002, aboard the Jumbo Vision. Transfer of this equipment marked a record-setting November rail shipment that included seven 520-ton pieces requiring 14 12-axle railcars, and two 200-ton pieces requiring two eight-axle railcars. The largest pieces measured approximately 80 feet (24.4 meters) in length and were 14 feet, 7 inches (4.5 meters) wide.

The fourth shipment, scheduled to move July 2003 on a yet-to-be-named Jumbo vessel, will include several pieces of notable length. Local agent for each of the vessels is Guthrie-Hubner, Inc., Duluth.

Only 28 of the special 12-axle railcars required for these shipments are available in North America. Syncrude UE-1 handled the projects in conjunction with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Company, Fort Worth, Texas, and Superior, Wis.; Canadian National Railway, Edmonton, Alberta, and Montreal; Rail Link America, Denver, Col., and Athabasca Northern Railway, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The Syncrude UE-1 oil extraction and upgrading endeavor is one of several underway in northern Alberta. It 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.
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CONTACT: Ed Clarke, Syncrude UE-1 Project, 403-538-4862

CONTACT: Lisa Marciniak, Port Promotion Manager, phone 218-727-8525

More Press Releases, 2003