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US Oil Sands Begins Phase 1 of PR Spring Project

Share Print Bookmark    |    Friday,August 15,2014

US Oil Sands Inc., has announced that it has filed its unaudited interim financial statements for the three month period ended June 30, 2014 along with the management discussion and analysis of the financial results of US Oil Sands for such period.

Highlights:

Since April 1, 2014, the Company:

• Announced that the Board of Directors approved the Final Investment Decision to proceed with construction of an enhanced Phase 1 Project at its PR Spring location in Utah;
• Issued purchase orders for substantially all of the ore handling equipment and initiated the procurement of long delivery equipment for the PR Spring Project;
• Received approval of its U.S. patent application for its bitumen extraction process, which complements the issuance of the Canadian patent granted in 2012;
• Announced that the Utah Supreme Court dismissed the only outstanding regulatory challenge made against the Company's PR Spring Project; and
• Appointed Mark H. Brown to the Company's Board of Directors.

Cameron Todd, CEO of US Oil Sands said: "Since our Board of Directors' approval to proceed with construction of US Oil Sands' enhanced PR Spring Project, we have made considerable progress, particularly with the procurement of most of the required ore handling equipment. 

As long-lead equipment procurement continues, we are working diligently to finalize detailed engineering, site preparation, utilities tie-in and fieldwork such that we remain on-track to commence installation and commissioning in the second and third quarters of next year."

Operational Highlights

During the second quarter of 2014, the Company's project team continued to work with its engineering contractors and equipment suppliers to finalize engineering and procure supplies for the PR Spring Project. Having issued purchase orders for substantially all of the ore handling equipment, US Oil Sands will continue placing orders for other major equipment over the next few months. The Company is targeting installation in mid-2015 with commissioning to follow.

The Company commenced field work and made progress on plant-site grading; utility supply infrastructure; and roadways and water supply pipeline construction. Detailed pit sequencing and mine logistics continued to advance. The Company has hired several key personnel located in Canada and in Utah to support the PR Spring Project.

Executive Management Addition

Effective September 2, 2014, US Oil Sands will welcome the addition of Ed Koshka as Vice President, Business Development & Marketing. Mr. Koshka has 28 years of business development and crude oil marketing experience in the oil & gas industry, the last 10 of which has been focused specifically on applying technology innovation to oil sands development. Prior thereto, Mr. Koshka was a Principal Consultant at Purvin & Gertz, Inc. following a 13 year career at Petro-Canada in various downstream roles. Mr. Koshka is a Professional Engineer, has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta and an MBA from the University of Calgary.

Mr. Koshka will be focused on developing oil sands opportunities utilizing US Oil Sands' proprietary bitumen extraction process in the Athabasca oil sands region and in other worldwide jurisdictions where his previous experience developing three unique oil sands projects will be invaluable. From a crude marketing perspective, project values can be enhanced by selling production into the most beneficial markets and Mr. Koshka will apply his considerable downstream expertise, initially to the Company's near-term PR Spring Project, to capture that value.

Cameron Todd said: "Mr. Koshka has been consulting with US Oil Sands on business development initiatives in Canada for a number of months now and we're delighted that he's accepted an elevated role within the Company.

His experience is aptly suited to furthering US Oil Sands' goal of implementing our revolutionary bitumen extraction process in Canada and maximizing market value for our forthcoming oil production."

Outlook

For the remainder of 2014, the Company will continue to focus on the PR Spring Project Phase 1 of engineering and mine design, placement of orders for long-lead equipment and refinement of equipment component selection for all other equipment.

General site preparation is expected to be completed in 2014.

Management anticipates that the off-site fabrication of the process extraction plant will be partially complete in 2014, with final off-site fabrication and field assembly occurring in mid-2015, followed by commissioning and commercial start-up.