Hey bill, EGLF .16 +.02 ask .165! Added IVAN 2.31 +.79 on big news today too...late to the party but hopefully it will be okay: Ivanhoe Energy's Revolutionary Heavy-to-Light Oil Process Achieves Performance Goals as Commercial Tests Begin
Tuesday January 17, 8:43 am ET
BAKERSFIELD, CA, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Ivanhoe Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: IVAN and TSX: IE, IE.U) announced today that its revolutionary field- located heavy oil upgrading Commercial Demonstration Facility (CDF) in California has successfully achieved a number of important performance goals culminating in an extended run last week. The successful extended test follows a period of continual incremental enhancements to the CDF over recent months, during which the CDF was operated utilizing a variety of crude oils and operating criteria. Ivanhoe Energy will now begin testing crudes from potential partners with an initial focus on heavy crudes from California and Western Canada, including bitumen from Canada's Athabasca Tar Sands region.
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"Following our acquisition of Ensyn Group Inc. and the heavy oil upgrading technology (HTL) in April 2005, we have successfully executed an extended program of technical and operational enhancements to the CDF," said Leon Daniel, Ivanhoe Energy's President and CEO. "These enhancements will allow us to proceed with the design and construction of crude-specific and site-specific full-scale 10,000 to 15,000 barrel per day facilities. We have a number of interested potential partners from around the world, including from the significant Athabasca tar sands region of Western Canada, as well as California, and we look forward to testing their crudes and working toward commercial agreements. We will provide details of our progress and arrange tours of the CDF as we move forward."
The CDF runs to date have successfully demonstrated a number of commercial configurations and processing alternatives, including both once-through and recycle modes of operation. A number of progressive HTL process enhancements have been validated during the CDF test program, including flue gas sulphur capture, heavy metals capture, and acidity reduction.
The CDF, the first of its kind in the world using Ivanhoe Energy's new proprietary heavy oil upgrading technology, is located in Aera Energy LLC's (Aera) Belridge heavy oil field near Bakersfield, California. Aera is a California limited liability company owned by affiliates of Shell and ExxonMobil.
Ivanhoe Energy's field located heavy oil upgrading technology has four key competitive advantages:
- It is field-located and effective at a relatively small minimum scale
of 10,000 to 15,000 barrels per day;
- The value of the upgraded liquid product means the producer is able to
capture the majority of the price differential between heavy and light
crude oil;
- The upgraded product is easily transported by pipeline without the
need for light blend oils; and
- The process generates significant on-site excess energy, replacing
natural gas for production of steam and/or power used in heavy-oil
recovery.
Ivanhoe Energy's HTL technology adds significant incremental value, flexibility, and risk avoidance to heavy oil producers in areas with existing infrastructure and alternative development options, such as Western Canada, and is also a unique option for the development of "stranded" heavy oil or tar sand deposits that cannot be produced due to lack of on-site energy or transportation challenges. Ivanhoe Energy's business plan is focused on the development of reserves and production, and intends to use its HTL technology as a critical, value-added tool in this regard.
Ivanhoe Energy is an independent international oil and gas exploration and development company building long-term growth in its reserve base and production. Ivanhoe Energy is a leader in technologically innovative methods designed to significantly improve reserves of oil and gas through the upgrading of heavy oil to light oil, state-of-the-art drilling techniques, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and the conversion of natural gas to liquids (GTL). Core operations are in the United States and China, with business development opportunities worldwide.
Ivanhoe Energy trades on the NASDAQ Capital Market with the ticker symbol IVAN and on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) with the symbol IE. On the TSX, Ivanhoe Energy is listed and traded in both Canadian and U.S. dollars. The U.S. dollar trading symbol on the TSX is IE.U.
Information contacts:
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All locations: Cindy Burnett 1-604-331-9830 (North America)
In Asia: Patrick Chua 86-1370-121-2607 / 852-9193-4056
Website: www.ivanhoe-energy.com
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This document includes forward-looking statements, including forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the continued advancement of Ivanhoe Energy's projects, the potential for, future application of, and commercialization of Ivanhoe Energy's heavy oil upgrading technology and other statements which are not historical facts. When used in this document, the words such as "could," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "potential," "should," and similar expressions relating to matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Although Ivanhoe Energy believes that its expectations reflected in these forward- looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include the potential that the company's projects will experience technological and mechanical problems, Ivanhoe Energy's process to upgrade bitumen and heavy oil may not be commercially viable, environmental risks, changes in product prices, our ability to raise capital as and when required, competition and other risks disclosed in Ivanhoe's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR and the Canadian Securities Commissions on SEDAR.
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Source: Ivanhoe Energy Inc. |
