OLD GREENWICH, Conn., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Premcor Inc.
(NYSE: PCO) today announced that, following the shutdown of its refinery
located in Hartford, Illinois, it has notified its wholesale customers in the
area that the Hartford terminal facility will remain open on a continuous
basis to accommodate Premcor's ongoing wholesale petroleum product
distribution business.
    In addition, Premcor intends to pursue promoting the facility as a
commercial hub for storage, distribution, and transshipment of ethanol.  The
company believes the facility is ideally situated in the corn-growing region,
and its location on the Mississippi River enables receipt and delivery of
product by barge, rail, or truck.  The facility has total storage capacity of
approximately 1.5 million barrels, of which a minimum of 500,000 barrels
should remain in petroleum product service to accommodate Premcor's wholesale
activity.  Therefore as much as one million barrels of tankage could be
available at Hartford for ethanol storage and/or throughputting.  No
substantial modifications would be required in order for the facility to
handle ethanol activity.  Premcor is now in the process of contacting
potential customers to evaluate whether a Hartford ethanol hub would be
feasible or desirable.
    Premcor Inc. is one of the largest independent petroleum refiners and
marketers of unbranded transportation fuels and heating oil in the United
States.
    This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the
company's current expectations with respect to future market conditions,
future operating results, the future performance of its refinery operations,
and future debt reductions.  Words such as "expects," "intends," "plans,"
"projects," "believes," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "shall," and
similar expressions typically identify such forward-looking statements.  Even
though Premcor believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking
statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that
its expectations will be attained.  Factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from expectations include, but are not limited to,
operational difficulties, varying market conditions, potential changes in
gasoline, crude oil, distillate, and other commodity prices, government
regulations, and other factors contained from time to time in the reports
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the company and its
subsidiaries, Premcor USA Inc. and The Premcor Refining Group Inc., including
the company's Form S-1 and the company's and its subsidiaries' quarterly
reports on Form 10-Q, reports on Form 8-K, and annual reports on Form 10-K.

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