Photo Release -- Lawal Reappointed to Port Authority Commission

HOUSTON, June 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- By unanimous vote, Houston City
Council has reappointed Kase Lawal to the Port Commission of the Port of Houston
Authority for a sixth term. Initially appointed in June 1999, Lawal was the
first vice chairman of the Port Commission. PHA commissioners serve two-year
terms without pay.

A photo accompanying this release is available at
http://media.globenewswire.com/poha/pages/exec.html

"We look forward to continuing our work with Commissioner Lawal," said PHA
Chairman Jim Edmonds. "He is a well-respected leader in the international
business community. We value his dedication to the Commission, in particular as
a supporter of education and small business development."

Lawal is chairman of PHA's Small Business Development Task Force.

"I am honored to represent the city of Houston as a Port of Houston Authority
commissioner," said Lawal. "And I am grateful for the confidence City Council
has again demonstrated in me with this reappointment. I have thoroughly enjoyed
my decade of service on the Port Commission and remain a dedicated steward of
our city and port."

Houston Mayor Bill White remarked, "Kase Lawal is a proven leader with the
international business acumen necessary to help our port grow."

City Council Member M.J. Khan, who nominated Lawal for the re-appointment,
emphasized the need for his continued involvement on the Port Commission. "He is
a solid leader and a committed citizen and I am pleased he will continue his
outstanding service on the Port Commission that does so much for our area," Khan
said.

City Council Member Wanda Adams praised Lawal's business skills. "It is with
great pleasure that the City of Houston welcomes Kase Lawal back to serve the
Port of Houston Authority, which serves the greater Houston area," said Adams.
"His expertise and talents as a brilliant businessman will continue to manage
the imports, exports and commerce that are the port authority, which is
synonymous with Houston."

Lawal is chairman and chief executive officer of CAMAC International
Corporation, a multi-national energy corporation that earned $2.43 billion in
revenue in 2008. CAMAC and its affiliates are engaged in oil and gas exploration
and production, engineering services and crude oil and natural gas trading for
worldwide markets. CAMAC has consistently ranked on the Forbes Magazine list of
the 400 largest privately-owned corporations in the United States and on the
Black Enterprise Magazine list as the second largest African-American owned
company in the United States. In 2006, CAMAC was named the Company of the Year
by Black Enterprise Magazine. Lawal is also the chairman of Allied Energy
Corporation. Lawal is a significant stakeholder in Unity National Bank, the only
federally insured and licensed African-American-owned bank in Texas, and also
serves as vice chairman of the bank's board of directors.

Lawal brings a rich and extensive history of civic service to his port position.
He was appointed to the United States Trade Advisory Committee on Africa,
reporting to President Bill Clinton, and was the U.S. Trade Representative on
trade policy in Africa. He is a former member of the United States Council on
the Business Development Committee of the U.S.- South Africa Binational
Commission and the Board of Directors of the Corporate Council on Africa in
Washington, D.C. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the
World Trade Council of the Greater Houston Partnership.

In 2003, Lawal established a $1 million endowment at Texas Southern University
to establish the Kase and Eileen Lawal Center for Global Trade at Jesse H. Jones
School of Business. In 1992, he established a petroleum engineering endowment at
the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering to benefit graduate
petroleum engineering students. Lawal serves as the director of the Cullen
Engineering Research Foundation and as a trustee for The Kinkaid School, which
is a leading college preparatory school. He also co-chairs Unite for Children,
United Against AIDS, a $300-million-dollar UNICEF campaign with his wife Eileen
Lawal.

Lawal is a graduate of Texas Southern University with a bachelor's degree in
chemistry and later obtained a master's degree in business administration,
finance and marketing from Prairie View A&M University of Texas. He was awarded
honorary doctorates in from Fort Valley State University and Texas Southern
University.

The Port of Houston Authority owns and operates the public facilities located
along the Port of Houston, the 25-mile-long complex of diversified public and
private facilities designed for handling general cargo, containers, grain and
other dry bulk materials, project and heavy lift cargo, and other types of
cargo. Each year, there are more than 8,000 vessel calls at the port, which
ranks first in the U.S. in foreign waterborne tonnage and second in overall
total tonnage. The port authority plays a vital role in ensuring navigational
safety along the Houston Ship Channel, which has been instrumental in Houston's
development as a center of international trade. The Barbours Cut Container
Terminal and Central Maintenance Facility are the first of any U.S. port
facilities to develop and implement an innovative Environmental Management
System that meets the rigorous standards of ISO 14001. The second
recertification of those facilities in 2009 included an extension for the
state-of-the-art Bayport Container Terminal. PHA is the first port authority in
the world to receive ISO 28000:2007 certification for Port Police and the
perimeter security operations at both the Barbours Cut and Bayport Terminals.
Additionally, the port is an approved delivery point for Coffee "C" futures
contracts traded on the New York Board of Trade's Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa
Exchange. For more information, please visit www.portofhouston.com

To access the port's Web site photo gallery, please visit
http://www.portofhouston.com/publicrelations/publicrelations.html and click the
link for PHA Photo Gallery.

The Port of Houston Authority logo is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=720

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CONTACT: Port of Houston Authority
Lisa Whitlock, Communications Manager
(713) 670-2644
Cell: 832-247-8179
lwhitlock@poha.com
Argentina M. James, Director of Public Affairs
(713) 670-2568
Cell: 713-306-6822
ajames@poha.com