May 1--Mount Redoubt volcano is still restive and there's no timetable yet on restarting operations at the Drift River oil terminal on Cook Inlet's west side or oil production platforms in the Inlet which ship crude oil through the terminal.

Natural gas production at the Steelhead platform in the MacArthur River field is not affected by the shutdown of the oil platforms, Chevron spokeswoman Roxanne Sinz said April 29.

Steelhead produces 50 million cubic feet of gas daily, she said.

So far Chevron has not furloughed any employees because of the extended shutdown, she said.

Chevron Shipping Co. brought the 46,000 deadweight-ton Mississippi Voyager to the Drift River terminal April 28 to load approximately 2.5 million gallons of crude oil and 840,000 gallons of water remaining in two storage tanks at the terminal. The facility is closed due to eruptions at Mount Redoubt, located about 22 miles from the terminal.

The transfer was to take 48 hours to 72 hours and will empty the tanks to the maximum amount possible, said Rod Ficken, vice president of Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co.

Earlier this month, the company removed about 6 million gallons, or 60 percent of the oil stored in the tanks, to a tanker operated by Tesoro Petroleum. But the remaining oil and water was below the quality Tesoro could accept. Tesoro operates a refinery near Kenai, on the east side of the Inlet.

Ficken and U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Mark Hamilton said the volcano is still erupting.

A unified command group of Coast Guard, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and Cook Inlet Pipe Line officials will decide on a reopening based on advice from U.S. Geological Survey scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage.

"They will be able to determine that when there is a period of no seismic activity or lava extrusion in the volcano," said Gary Folley, a state environmental manager who is part of the unified team with the Coast Guard and the pipe line company.

Hamilton said the USGS has advised that there are continued seismic tremors around the volcano and that lava is forming a dome in the crater, indicating the possibility of a further explosion of ash.

"This could happen with little or no warning," he said.

Ficken said the company has about 15 people at the terminal clearing mud and debris from a 4,800-foot runway. Buildings and tanks were not damaged by the ash or mudflow from the volcano, although water and mud did get into some buildings at the site.