Facility Description

The former Cascade Grain facility is the largest ethanol plant on the West Coast with nameplate capacity of 108MMgy (the ''Plant''). The Plant resides primarily on a site owned by the Port of St. Helens near Clatskanie, Oregon and is subject to a 60 year lease with a 20 year renewal option. The Plant also includes (and owns) roughly 5 acres of property that house approximately 8MM gallons of storage adjacent to the deep water dock. The Plant can produce 328 thousand tons of dry distiller's grains (''DDGS'') using approximately 38.5MM bushels of corn annually. Located at Port Westward on the Columbia River near Clatskanie, Oregon, the Plant is served by two major gas pipelines. Electricity is provided by Clatskanie Peoples Utility District (''PUD''). The Plant is located on a short-line railroad, the Portland & Western, and connects to the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe railways. The Plant receives corn via 110-car unit trains, therefore minimizing transportation costs.

CPBR

Key Facility Highlights

Strategically Located Destination Plant

  • - Largest ethanol plant on the West Coast of the U.S.
  • - Located on the Columbia River near Clatskanie, Oregon; readily accessible to serve high demand West Coast markets via barge, rail and truck
  • - The deep water dock is a highly valuable asset and difficult to replicate; enabling the low cost transfer of products to domestic and international destinations
  • - West Coast ethanol is consistently priced at a premium when compared to Midwest ethanol
  • - Greater access to higher value DDGS markets on the West Coast and efficient and low cost access to export markets
  • - Direct access to one of North America's most prolific gas producing areas, providing natural gas savings relative to Midwest based ethanol plants
  • - Abundance of hydroelectric power in the area provides access to low-cost, dependable electricity
  • - Proximity to Columbia River provides access to large quantities of water

CPBR Advantages

Transportation

  • - Significant competitive advantages over comparable Midwestern facilities due to location and input/output transportation flexibility
  • - Location of the plant reduces the cost for shipping ethanol and DDGS to the large local, West Coast and export markets
  • - Proximity to Port of Longview provides additional and alternative bulk shipment access of DDGS via ocean-going vessels

State of the Art Technology

  • - Delta-T ethanol process technology has been proven in numerous plants across the country
  • - According to publicly available information, similar sized ethanol plants using the Delta-T process technology have experienced 115MMgy to 125MMgy run rates

The Path Forward and Timeline

Process Improvements and Plant Efficiency – Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery (''CPBR''), the owner of the Plant, is finalizing significant maintenance activities in anticipation of a restart of the Plant. In addition, CPBR has initiated certain process improvements to enhance the original plant design. CPBR upgraded the plant's water treatment systems.

Staffing – CPBR has completed hiring the complete operations team and has been fully staffed.

Training – A rigorous training program has been completed prior to restart. All employees have competed a minimum of 160 hours of classroom training prior to restart.

Operating phase – It is expected that the plant will be in a position to commence operations in the first quarter of 2012.

Strategic alternatives – Once the plant achieves steady state, CPBR intends to fully investigate additional methods to unlock value with respect to the plant assets. Key process tie-ins will be implemented prior to startup of operations.

Business Enhancement Opportunities

Ethanol Distribution Terminal – The Plant has been upgraded to facilitate transloading of ethanol for other landlocked ethanol facilities.

Additional Storage Capacity

The facility has approximately 8MM gallons of on-site final product storage tanks and potential access to another 18MM gallons of tank storage adjacent to the site. This tankage affords increased ethanol distribution opportunities and value to commodity traders for store and hold strategies.

Investigation of DDGS Distribution Opportunities

Currently CPBR enjoys local access to DDGS export terminal capability. Coordinated activity can lead to greater efficiencies in this area.

CPBR is investigating methods of on-site distribution via water to domestic and international end user markets.