OriginOil Targets Canadian Oil Sands Market
OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), the developer of a breakthrough energy production process for harvesting algae and cleaning up oil & gas water, announced today that its second original equipment manufacturer's (OEM) agreement will target oil service companies in the Canadian oil sands market.
Privately-held investor group LH Opportunity Group plans to work with Calgary-based specialty fabricator Ensteel Industries to design an end to end system, featuring OriginOil's technology, for potential applications in the enhanced oil recovery and tailing pond water treatment markets.
LH was an early private investor in Athabasca Oil Corporation (TSX: ATH); while over its 40-year history, Ensteel has completed projects for companies like Propak Systems and Plains Fabrication that supply industry leaders in the Canadian oil and gas sector.
Bill Ross, President of LH Opportunity Group, stated, "We are very excited to take the lead in the Canadian market with OriginOil's breakthrough technology, CLEAN-FRAC. Through Ensteel we believe we are very well equipped to begin manufacturing CLEAN-FRAC units in the very near term. We believe the opportunity in Canada is huge and our oil and gas community of decision makers is small and tight."
Under the terms of the OEM agreement, OriginOil has granted a non-exclusive license to LH Opportunity Group to bundle OriginOil's high-speed and chemical-free CLEAN-FRAC technology with systems that LH and Ensteel plan to develop. OriginOil will receive royalty payments based on a percentage of system sales revenue.
"Major oil sands producers in the region are expected to commit hundreds of millions of new dollars to water management and tailing pond treatment over the next few years," said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO. "Based on its track record, we have concluded that LH is an aggressive early adopter that is expected to quickly attack this new opportunity. We welcome LH and its partner Ensteel to our growing family of OEMs."
OriginOil's CLEAN-FRAC(TM) process is based on the company's Solids Out of Solution(TM) technology that efficiently removes oils, suspended solids, insoluble organics and bacteria from produced or 'frac flowback' water, on a continuous flow basis and without the use of chemicals.
According to the US Bureau of Land Management, oil sand deposits are complex mixtures of sand, clays, water and bitumen, a "heavy" or highly viscous oil. The Alberta Geological Survey states that it takes from 2.5 to 4 barrels of water to produce one barrel of bitumen, and reclamation of mining sites must be done to a standard to at least the equivalent of their previous biological productivity.
A study previously issued by the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta suggested that "the choke point for the province's oil sands expansion may not be the huge carbon dioxide emissions arising from mining and processing the sticky, bitumen containing tar sands, as is widely assumed, but a lack of water." (The Globe and Mail: Choke point for oil sands may be water shortage.)
Source: OriginOil
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