Larry
As they say in the X-files "the truth is out there". I wonder if Mr. Tipman looks anything like the cigarette smoking man. These records are gleaned from voluminous filings at the ABQ Bankruptcy court. In interest of followers of this thread I am attempting to post relevant information. Some times my OCR is not up to snuff. This is especially true on the NASDAQ analyst Andrew Labadie journals and correspondence records that are now part of the public record since many of these are copies of faxes.
I disagree with the analysis of the last three posts. I believe that this Memorandum is the smoking gun in this case. Though the NASD memorandum is well crafted most of the underlying data is not present. Many conclusions are lifted directly from an on going communications between Andrew Labadie and Bob Tipman. A curiosity from time to time the fax cover sheet identifies the sender as Shell Canada Limited.
The following is a scan of one such page:
.
Exhibit D to
, _Declaration of Herbert-M.
Campbell II
.
02/26/97: spoke with Bob Tipman (403) 691-4864, sent him a copy of the comment letter that was sent to. Solv-Ex He Will send me a package on Syncrude and we will discuss the comment. letter on 02/27/97.
02/28/97: spoke with Bob Tipman (403) 691-4864, an independent consultant, retired from Syncrude and currently doing work for Shell Trading and Transportation. We discussed comment letter I wrote to company dated 02/26/97. He said that the engineering group working on the plant is named Tri- Ed Engineering which he believes was organized as a group of contract-engineers that working on the plant. Tri-Ed has no other jobs, and is does not appear to be listed in the phone book.. He believes one of directors of Solv-Ex is one of the principals of this engineering firm.
He said I need to ask the following questions:
please describe the process of recovering marketable bitumen
how does the Company perceive the process to work?
please provide us with the most recent copy of the flow-sheet that you have provided . Alberta
please provide us with a copy of your latest flow-sheet
.
Mr. Tipman states that the company is purchasing equipment that is ill-suitet for the application Ill suited as in producing commercial material The equipment configuration is such that to company can't produce a sufficiently "clean" bitumen product i.e., the process the company using does not remove a sufficient amount of water and solids The equipment configuration does not allow Solv-Ex to recover enough commercial product to justify the investment SolvEx is spending $I25 million to generate 100,000 barrels of bitumen a month The price of commercial bitumnen is U.S. $ 15/bbt. That translates into $ 18 million in revenues per year,. Operating margins are roughly one-third, which means $6 million per year generated from an investment of $ 125 million. Lastly, the equipment configuration will not facilitate economies of scale. r
Because as a result of their process, Solv-Ex will have so much. remaining and solid embedded in the bitumen, 30ø% water and 10% solids whereas Syncrude achieves 2.5% and only 0.5% level is required to sell bitumen at U.S. $15/bls. Conssequently -Solv-Ex is going toc to"crack their bitumen product to get rid of the water and solids, which will leave them an unstable product, (it jells) that has a high nitrogen and sulfi:r content. Gibson Petroleum may mix the material with other crudes in order to stabilize the material
Gibson Pctroleum~ Ltd. is actually Gibson Trucking and Petroleumn, and is Large crude oil and. refined product transportation company. They have their own storage plants and transport oil productsfocthe major exploration and refinery companies.
Apparently Mr. Rendall was indicted in the late 1970's by the Evoiremental.Protection Agency for mis-use of funds that were designated for alternative energy projects was not prosecutet Mr. Tipman will get me document reference.
02/28/97: spoke with John Rentall C.E.O. of Solv-Ex, at (505) 243-7701 asked whether be had, seen my letter of 02/26/97; he requested that I fax a copy to his office, (received confirrnation of good transmission). I told him that name of affiliate was mis-spelled, should be Alcoss instead of Acoss.
03/01/97: Perry and I spoke with Bob Tipman (403) 691-4864, an independent consultant. retired from Syncrude and currently doing work for Shell Trading and Transportation. He told us that
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