April 20, 2011 – Calgary, Alberta: US Oil Sands Inc. (“US Oil Sands” or the “Corporation”) (TSXV: USO.V) is pleased to announce that Cameron M. Todd has joined the Corporation as Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Todd has over 30 years of experience in all areas of the oil and gas industry. He has been involved in many of the managerial facets of oil and gas development, production, refining and marketing both in Western Canada and internationally. Mr. Todd previously held a senior executive position with a TSX listed company engaged in oil sands exploration and production in the Athabasca region. He received his Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary in 1980.
As the Corporation embarks on this next stage of its lifecycle, Mr. Todd’s experience in growing field operations from start-up through to production will be a great asset. In addition, Mr. Todd has significant refining and marketing experience which will be beneficial when planning for bitumen production sales. The Corporation recently completed a $12.6 million financing which will fund an extensive coring program on its leased State land in the PR Spring oil sands deposit in NE Utah. Engineering activities will also receive focus during the upcoming months as the Corporation works closely with FLSmidth.
Verne Johnson, Chairman, comments “We are pleased to have engaged Cameron Todd who has had direct involvement in growing a junior Athabasca oil sands company into a producing enterprise. He has extensive international exposure and field experience in the Uinta basin in which the Corporation’s resources are situated. Mr. Todd will lead our very experienced and capable management team.”
Mr. Todd joins Glen Snarr, President, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary, Barclay Cuthbert, Vice President, Operations and Tim Wall, Vice President, Engineering. Together this team has the experience and qualifications to continue to build an oil sands production company based on an excellent resource base with a considerable reserve life index.
The Corporation was also pleased have Ed Chwyl join the Board of Directors. Mr. Chwyl is a retired businessman with over 35 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in North America, most notably as President and Chief Executive Officer of Tarragon Oil and Gas Limited from 1989 to 1998. Prior thereto, he held various technical and executive positions within the oil and gas industry in Canada and the United States. He serves as lead independent director for Baytex Energy Corp. and as Chairman of the Board of Westfire Energy Ltd.
About US Oil Sands Inc.
US Oil Sands Inc. (formerly Earth Energy Resources Inc.) has developed an environmentally responsible process to extract hydrocarbons from solids. A bio-based solvent is used to rapidly liberate the hydrocarbons, reducing the mechanical energy and eliminating the pH control typically used to recover bitumen in surface mineable projects. The patent-pending process effectively extracts bitumen from water-wet and oil-wet oil sands. US Oil Sands has successfully developed the process at its facility in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Since inception, US Oil Sands has devoted its efforts to commercialize the water efficient and scalable process, which has no requirement for tailings ponds.
US Oil Sands, through its wholly owned Utah subsidiary, owns a 100% leasehold interest in 7,835 acres of Utah State land. US Oil Sands internally estimates, as of December 31, 2010, that in respect of this interest it has 177.8 MMbbl of bitumen which would be classified as Discovered Bitumen Initially-In-Place.
“Discovered Bitumen Initially-In-Place” is that quantity of bitumen that is estimated, as of a given date, to be contained in known accumulations prior to production. The recoverable portion of Discovered Bitumen Initially-In-Place includes production, reserves, and contingent resources; the remainder is unrecoverable. Further review of the Corporation’s resource evaluation procedures is required to assign the estimate of Discovered Bitumen Initially-In-Place to a more specific resource category. The resource estimate is a best estimate of the quantity that will actually be recovered. It is equally likely that the actual remaining quantities recovered will greater or less than the best estimate. If probabilistic methods are used, there should be at least a 50 percent probability (P50) that the quantities actually recovered will equal or exceed the best estimate. The resource estimate has not been risked for chance of development (technical, economic, regulatory, market and facility, corporate commitment or political risks). There is no certainty that any portion of the resources will be developed or, if developed, there is no certainty as to the timing of such development or whether it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources.
For further information, please contact:
Cameron Todd – Chief Executive Officer
Phone: (403) 233-9366
Glen Snarr – President, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary
Phone: (403) 233-9366
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