Valero's refineries at Houston, Texas City and Port Arthur have completed the shutdown process and are waiting for Hurricane Ike to make landfall. Valero's other Gulf Coast refineries remain in operation at planned rates. As of this morning, we had closed 64 company-operated retail stores out of nearly 200 in the Houston region due to evacuations. In most cases, even if the store is closed, customers can still fill up by paying at the pump with a credit card, as long as fuel remains in the tanks and the power is still on.

Landfall is expected late tonight or early tomorrow morning. We do not yet know when it will be safe for our crews to do damage assessments of our refineries. When I have information to share, I will send out another update.