Got Pilot Update News, not what people here expectingbut still a good/bad news update. I appreciate the update.
Probably the reason for the recent selling despite good external related news and AXE twitter news & photo.
Calgary, AB, Canada – July 27, 2022 – Acceleware Ltd. (“Acceleware” or the “Company”) continues to advance and validate its heavy oil electrification technology on its commercial-scale, RF XL pilot project at Marwayne, Alberta (the “Pilot”). The Company is pleased with progress at the Pilot to date, and based on initial observations, remains confident that RF XL will become viable as a critical technology in the effort to decarbonize heavy oil and oil sands production.
To date, the RF XL technology has been performing well, in-line with expectations:
1. The clean tech inverter (“CTI”) has been operational for four consecutive months, which is a significant achievement and something that has never been done before; and
2. The Company has observed sustained heating of the formation around the RF XL well.
Recently, the fibre optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS) system in the heating well was damaged during a maintenance operation at the site. Though not a core component of the RF XL technology itself, the DTS is important to data gathering and to regulate injected power such that the system operates within specified parameters. The DTS will need to be removed from the well, inspected and repaired. In conjunction with repair of the DTS, the Company will take the opportunity to remove and inspect certain downhole components of the RF XL system, to gain valuable data regarding the initial performance of the RF power transmission system.
The next steps for the Pilot are anticipated to involve pausing heating while the Company: 1) retrieves, inspects, and repairs the damaged DTS and 2) inspects and analyzes various downhole components of the RF XL system. Upon completion of these steps, heating operations and further testing will immediately resume. The Company intends to continue to produce oil while executing these steps.
The Company will set out to complete this work as soon as services and parts are available. Learnings from the operation are expected to result in additional IP that could further refine RF XL and the CTI design, performance, and economics in the future.
CEO Geoff Clark says, “As is generally the case in a commercial pilot, we are continually adjusting and incorporating new learnings into our technology. This is the nature of research and development, and we remain very pleased and excited with our progress. We are going to have these repairs done as soon as we possibly can and look forward to providing an update once they’ve been successfully completed.“
Added Michal Okoniewski, CSO, “To have an in-situ RF heating system running for four consecutive months is a major milestone and is something that’s never been done before. We remain confident that, with the resolution of a few mechanical issues, we will see meaningful progress in the near term. Frankly, we’ve already made significant progress; we have demonstrated initial heat driven by RF XL in the formation as we expected, and are looking forward to the coming weeks and months to further develop and assess the technology.”
Acceleware continues to produce oil at rates consistent with the gradual ramp up of heating, with no freshwater use and no solvent injected into the ground.
Funding for the Pilot has been provided in part by grants from Alberta Innovates, Sustainable Development Technology Canada, and Emissions Reductions Alberta.