Oilsands Quest Inc. Contributes $1 Million to Saskatchewan Research Council for a Scaled Physical Model

Oilsands Quest Inc. announces a $1 million contribution to the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) which will be applied towards the construction of a critical piece of equipment that will be used to develop recovery methods suitable for Canada’s oil sands deposits.

“For many years we have played a key role in enabling Saskatchewan operators to develop the province’s conventional light, medium and heavy oil resources,” said SRC President and CEO, Laurier Schramm. “This significant contribution by Oilsands Quest towards research equipment demonstrates their commitment to the advancement of technology in this key area, and will allow us to continue to provide dedicated research and development to respond to the specific needs of Saskatchewan’s oil sands industry.”

SRC has been working with the Canadian oil sands industry since the 1970s to provide technical solutions to enable access to the heavy and extra-heavy oil resources located deep underground, and more recently for in-situ extra-heavy oil located in Saskatchewan’s oil sands deposits. Over the last decade, SRC has been involved in developing and assessing recovery processes in order to produce the extra-heavy oil, also known as bitumen, to the surface.

Oilsands Quest will benefit from SRC’s work for the Axe Lake Discovery located in northwest Saskatchewan near the Alberta border, where in-situ production potential has been reported. “Access to SRC’s research in thermal-solvent extraction processes is important to us, as we advance our recovery optimization testing and assessment.” said Dr. Erdal YILDIRIM, President of Oilsands Quest Technology Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Oilsands Quest. “We are very pleased to help support SRC in their innovative heavy oil and bitumen recovery research.”

SRC has found that a combination of thermal and solvent extraction processes (TSX) are significantly less energy intensive, use less water and are much more suitable for the oil sands deposits found in Saskatchewan and parts of Alberta. The contribution by Oilsands Quest will be used towards the design, construction, and commissioning of a large scale, variable-pressure/temperature 3D lab-based physical model that will allow rapid development, technology deployment and commercial application of the TSX process. The model will be located at SRC’s research facilities in Regina.