News Release

BNSF To Lead U.S. Railway Industry In Utilizing eCommerce for Diesel Fuel Purchases

FORT WORTH, Texas, March 12, 2001:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) will be the first U.S. railway to use the Internet to purchase fuel. On March 27, BNSF will tender 9 million gallons of fuel, a portion of their Gulf-Coast requirements, over the American Petroleum Exchange (APE), a neutral e-marketplace that has already done over 1,700 diesel fuel and gasoline transactions.

“Fuel sourcing and supply management is a strategic function for BNSF,” says BNSF’s Cheri Carlson, assistant vice president, Transportation and Fuel Management. “We have continually engaged in new and innovative strategies to minimize our fuel costs. Inviting refiners and trading companies to bid on our fuel requirements is not new to BNSF. What is new, however, is hosting this process as an electronic auction on an Internet site. Using APE to host our first electronic fuel auction will provide a foundation for determining how BNSF will use Internet-based fuel purchasing in the future.”

“BNSF has led the railroad industry in adopting eBusiness technologies,” says Jeff Campbell, BNSF’s vice president and Chief Sourcing Officer. “We implemented internal eProcurement and Auctioning software last summer. The use of APE is just a natural extension of our embracing electronic sourcing through a specialized petroleum exchange. We are moving our 152-year-old railroad at Internet speed.”

American Petroleum Exchange has worked with dozens of large fuel buyers and suppliers to build a web-based, neutral e-marketplace. The exchange has conducted numerous auctions for large end-users in the transportation industry including United Parcel Service (UPS) and, most recently, United Airlines. BNSF selected APE for its first fuel auction because of APE’s successful track record and petroleum-specific expertise.

“We are extremely impressed with the sophistication of BNSF’s energy procurement program. APE eCommerce will provide BNSF with a powerful new tool to efficiently deploy their fuel procurement strategies,” says Stephen Gloyd, senior vice president, American Petroleum Exchange.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, BNSF operates one of the largest rail networks in North America, with 33,500 route miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian Provinces. BNSF purchases approximately 1.2 billion gallons of fuel annually.

BNSF Headquarters
BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000