From Kerm's Yerman's Newsletter...
The official name is stress field detector, but inventor George
Liszicasz prefers to refer to his potentially revolutionary grey box as
a "she-machine," with a remarkable instinct for sniffing out oil and gas
reserves.
"Once you have her going, she is on," he says joyfully, showing off a
wire-covered device tucked into a grey metal case, which he stores
inside a safe the size of a good-sized armoire. When the creation
performs particularly well, the personable Mr. Liszicasz, an amateur
opera singer born in Hungary, erupts into an Italian aria.
Mr. Liszicasz claims the device, when flown in an aircraft equipped with
a global positioning system, can find large oil and gas deposits with a
success rate of up to 90% -- and up to 75% for smaller pools. It is
equipped with a sensor that, his company claims, responds to underground
stress fields.
Under current methods, the success rate for wild cat exploration is
between 10% and 30%.
Mr. Liszicasz is the chief executive of Pinnacle Oil International Inc.,
a Calgary-based junior technology company with a market capitalization
of $170-million (US) he founded three years ago to commercialize the
technology in the energy sector -- and potentially other domains.
The firm, whose shares are listed on the OTC bulletin board in the
United States, yesterday finalized a $6-million (US) private placement
of 400,000 restricted shares to help bankroll its transition from
development company to operating enterprise.
Its Canadian partners include Renaissance Energy Ltd. and Encal Energy
Ltd., both based in Calgary, and Dallas, Tex.-based CamWest Exploration
LP.
In a major coup, the company recently recruited two key people
responsible for testing the technology with the partners: Daniel
Topolinsky, former exploration vice-president at Renaissance, who joined
as president, and James Ehrets, former exploration vice-president at
CamWest, who joined as executive vice-president, operations.
An experienced exploration geologist, Mr. Topolinsky said he was so
intrigued by the device he left a 20-year career at Renaissance, one of
Canada's top oil companies, to help introduce the technology to the
North American industry.
At the very least, he said, it's an eco-friendly, cost-saving tool to
find oil and gas. At best, it could revolutionize oil and gas
exploration and alter the geopolitics of oil by dramatically reducing
finding risks.
"I think it lends to their credibility when executives from the two
major joint venture partners leave their positions with producing
companies to join the effort at Pinnacle," said John McAleer, oil
services analyst with FirstEnergy Capital Corp. in Calgary.
Mr. McAleer said the company's claims seem so fantastic they're tough to
believe at first. He estimated the technology could reduce finding costs
by a ballpark $1.50 to $2 a barrel.
The stress field detector is faster and cheaper than conventional
methods -- it can survey 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometres) a day at $12 a
linear mile, compared to $5,000 to $8,000 per linear mile for shooting
seismic, at a rate of 10 miles a day. "If nothing else, it's looking
like it will be quite complementary to exploration efforts using
seismic. If it can show you on a regional basis where you don't want to
be, it can save you an enormous amount of money," Mr. McAleer said.
The company has developed four such devices, all with different
properties.
Although it has no earnings, Mr. Topolinsky said it plans to start
building revenue this year by collecting royalties of 5% to 8% of
production from joint venture partners. Seven prospects are lined up for
drilling by the end of the year.
The firm, which already owns an aircraft, plans to buy a second,
longer-range airplane to survey remote areas anywhere in the world.
Until now, the device has been tested only in North America.
The technology's greatest challenge is convincing skeptics, Mr.
Topolinsky said.
"This business has seen a lot of snake oil salesmen come and go . . .
especially in the U.S., where there is a scam a minute," he said.
"I have seen enough I know the tool has validity and it's going to have
an application in the oil and gas business.
"How much it's going to change the business depends on how much
acceptance we have and how we continue to sell ourselves."
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