2019-10-29 10:19 ET - News Release
Mr. David Sealock reports
PETROTEQ ACHIEVES HIGHER OIL QUALITY
Petroteq Energy Inc. has achieved sales of high-quality heavy oil from its Asphalt Ridge facility in Utah.
Three important characteristics in comparing the qualities of different crude oils are specific gravity (API gravity), the amount of base sediment and water (BS&W), and sulfur content. West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WTI) is perhaps the leading benchmark crude oil used in North America for pricing different crude oils, primarily because it has a relatively high specific gravity (between 37 and 42 degrees on the API scale), a fairly strict maximum BS&W content (less than 1.0 per cent), and a low sulfur content (0.42 per cent or less by weight). Crude oils having a relatively low content are considered "sweet" while oil having a higher sulfur content are considered "sour". Crude oils having characteristics or specifications that are comparable with WTI crude oil are often in demand by refiners and yield a higher price than crude oils having lower quality characteristics.
Using oil sands ores mined or extracted from Utah's Asphalt Ridge area, the Company has the ability -- at its Asphalt Ridge facility -- to produce a crude oil that can range between a heavier oil and a medium oil in its specific gravity (i.e. an API gravity of 11 to 30 degrees), depending on refiner crude slate requirements and the refined products (i.e. lighter gasolines, medium distillates such as diesel fuels, or heavier oil feedstocks) they plan to produce. In addition, even though the heavy oil and bitumen contained in Asphalt Ridge oil sands deposits have a relatively low sulfur content, the oil produced at the Company's Asphalt Ridge facility has an even lower sulfur content when compared with WTI crude oil. Finally, the oil produced from the Company's facility now yields a BS&W content of about .003 per cent, a spec that is almost 40 per cent lower than the BS&W specification required by many of Utah's refiners, pipelines and custody transfer operations.
Crude oil produced at the Company's facility in Asphalt Ridge is considered a sweet medium to heavy crude oil since the sulfur content is typically below the spec for WTI, has very low BS&W, and can be customized to achieve a range of API gravities. Throughout the oil industry, the shift over the past three or so decades to cleaner fuels, particularly in the U.S., has made a low sulfur content the "silver bullet" in how crude oil is valued and priced and its use as a feedstock in refineries that are now producing low sulfur or ultra-low sulfur gasolines and diesel fuels to meet increasingly stringent environmental requirements for both on-road motor vehicles and (more recently) the international marine industry.
Environmental, legal and competitive factors will continue to place enormous pressure on U.S. (and international) refiners to reduce or remove sulfur from the clean fuels and products they produce, as recently illustrated by the new international shipping standards (IMO 2020) requiring low sulfur fuels in marine vessels. Recent analyses conducted on crude oil produced from the Company's Asphalt Ridge facility have confirmed a close to negligible sulfur content, which makes it a viable refinery feedstock for the ultra-low sulfur fuels increasingly mandated for the motor vehicle and shipping industries.
Currently, the international shipping industry uses about 5 per cent of global oil production and the bunker fuel for ships is usually high in sulfur. Refineries around the world are not yet prepared to remove sulfur in the scale required to meet shippers needs. Therefore, Petroteq believes that its low sulfur heavy oil can fulfill this need and command a high price.
The Asphalt Ridge facility is the first commercial plant demonstrating this technology in the U.S., and to the Company's knowledge, globally. The Company's patented technology has already been licensed domestically, and the Company continues to explore up to 25 potential markets worldwide.
"We are entering an exciting phase where we are making oil better and better every day. Everything that we have developed over the last years we hope will now culminate in our streamlined designs for our enlarged facility that is around the corner," said David Sealock, Petroteq's CEO.
About Petroteq Energy Inc.
Petroteq is a fully integrated oil and gas company focused on the development and implementation of a new proprietary technology for oil extraction. The Company has an environmentally safe and sustainable technology for the extraction of heavy and bitumen from oil sands, oil shale deposits and shallow oil deposits. Petroteq is engaged in the development and implementation of its patented environmentally friendly heavy oil processing and extraction technologies. Our proprietary process produces zero greenhouse gas, zero waste and requires no high temperatures. Petroteq is currently focused on developing its oil sands resources and expanding production capacity at its Asphalt Ridge heavy oil extraction and processing facility located near Vernal, Utah.
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