A Few Months ago I read a news release from Chevron which said they were not doing y2k remediation because of the cost and they would fix on failure. This with the belief that there were no real problems.

Now just a few months later every thing is fixed and they even brag about replacing an older controler (non y2k complaint) with a piece of used equipment to save money!!

I am concerned because I live within 4 miles of Marcus hook (as the wind blows) It seems to me now we know that y2k is not a problem for the utilities????? We should turn our attention to the refineries. I think breathing is more important than electricity!!

Will the CEO have a gas mask available in his New Years eve Party bag?

Form the Chevron web site:

As everyone knows by now, the Y2K "millennium bug" is supposed to confuse all of our computers and equipment with embedded chips or processors and disrupt our ability to conduct our business.

I dont believe thats going to happen. I believe Chevron will be prepared for the transition to the Year 2000.

As the millennium wave starts rolling across time zones, live reports will be transmitted first from Chevron operations in Papua New Guinea, Australia and the Far East to a corporate information center were setting up in San Ramon. This early warning system will enable us to pass along valuable information to Chevron facilities in the Caspian region, Western Europe, North and South America and Hawaii.

But this is just another step in Chevrons Y2K activities and contingency planning.

As the millenium wave starts rolling across time zones, live reports will be transmitted first from Chevron operations in Papua New Guinea, Australia and the Far East to a corporate information center we're setting up in San Ramon. For two years, more than 1,200 talented people around the company and some of the best consultants in the business have worked diligently to make sure that computers helping to navigate a tanker in the Arabian Gulf, regulate temperature levels at a chemical plant in East Texas or operate a platform off the coast of Africa recognize the Year 2000 and keep running.

Using risk-based analysis, weve identified mission critical systems, addressed problems and tested equipment. Early on, we established milestones and measured our progress. Review teams have traveled the world and returned with positive results of the commitment of our people and what they have done to prepare for the Year 2000.

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A lot is at stake for Chevron. We want our operations to be incident free so our employees and the public are safe. We want to protect the environment. And we want to meet the needs of our customers. Focus groups tell us that the general public fully expects oil companies to be prepared. We aim to prove them right.

Focus groups tell us that the general public fully expects oil companies to be prepared. We aim to prove them right. The good news is that our Y2K efforts will yield dividends far beyond January 1.

There has probably been more communication, more best practices sharing, more mutual aid given between diverse parts of the company than I have ever seen before. An awful lot of people have gotten to know each other and theyve learned about other parts of the company. Externally, weve made important face-to-face contact with our mission critical suppliers.

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The imagination of our people in squashing this "bug" has hatched some creative solutions. Recently, I talked with employees at our Burnaby refinery in Canada. They had audited a control system and knew it wasnt Y2K compliant. The manufacturer said it would cost $350,000 to replace the hardware and software to make the system compliant. The crew at Burnaby found refurbished hardware that also eliminated the need for replacing the software. The total cost: $10,000. Theyre proud of that result and should be -- and Im proud to work in a company with people like this.

Across the company, weve simplified and improved the integrity of systems and processes that might be affected by Y2K issues. Initially, we documented the inter-connections between our various systems and ended up creating some elaborate spider diagrams. Some connections hadnt been used for 10 years, so we got rid of them.

I even did a little house-cleaning myself. I was curious if some computer code I had written more than 20 years ago while an employee at Chevron Research and Technology Co. was lying around. Sure enough, it was still there taking up valuable space in a computer storage device at our Richmond, California, refinery.

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Ive also been inspired to make Y2K preparations at home. After taking an inventory of all the devices that have year-sensitive clocks and performing my own remediation program, I am proud to report that my computer, alarm system and my cars are Y2K compliant.

As for Chevron, we expect some possibly minor Y2K-related upsets, but nothing major. And certainly nothing we think we will not be prepared to handle through contingency plans and emergency preparedness. We may get some surprises -- such as Y2K-related outages by local utilities -- but we handle surprises pretty well. Most of us are well trained in expecting the unexpected.

As the clock strikes midnight in California, I suspect that those of us in San Ramon may not be celebrating in the same way that people will be in Union Square in San Francisco, or London or Maracaibo, Venezuela, but I think well have something to celebrate. I think were going to find that Chevron people performed extremely well, and protected our co-workers, customers, neighbors and stockholders from the millennium bug.

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-- Anonymous, November 02, 1999