
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 9, 1990                   TAG: 9006090089
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CHEVRON TO MARKET LOWER-EMISSION GASOLINE

Chevron Corp. is expected to announce next week the launch of a lower-emission grade of gasoline. Competitors including Arco, Shell and Exxon have already put such products on the market.

A "fuel change" is in the works at Chevron, one of the company's marketing officials said, but he wouldn't elaborate.

A Chevron spokeswoman confirmed that the company plans a news conference Tuesday in Los Angeles, one of the nation's most-polluted cities, but she wouldn't elaborate. She denied a rumor circulating last week that the company was test-marketing a lower-emission fuel in Florida.

Gasoline retailers have been predicting for months that Chevron would soon launch its own brand of lower-emission gasoline.

In another development, Chevron will perform a proposed $1 billion-plus modernization of its crude-oil refining plant at Richmond, Calif., giving the area a big economic boost.

In modernizing the Richmond plant, Chevron, the nation's largest crude-oil refiner, plans extra expenditures of $325 million in salaries, $153.5 million for materials and $15.2 million in state sales taxes. Half the taxes will revert to local governments.

Chevron also will spend $250 million to $280 million to build a 142-megawatt cogeneration plant to power the refining complex.

The estimated total cost of the modernization - which is designed to shift production toward higher-profit gasolines and fuels - ranges from $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion, the company filing said.

by CNB