Now this is NEWS?????IVANHOE ENERGY INC Quick Quote: IE 2.77 (+0.98)
Ivanhoe Energy's Revolutionary Heavy-to-Light Oil Process Achieves Performance Goals as Commercial Tests Begin
1/17/06
BAKERSFIELD, CA, Jan 17, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ --
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.
"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.