Petroteq Oil Sands Plant to Restart

Petroteq Energy Inc., an integrated oil company focused on the development and implementation of its proprietary oil-extraction technologies, announced that work to upgrade the capacity and reliability of its oil sands plant at Asphalt Ridge has been completed. Commissioning of the plant is now also complete.

The restart of has been impacted as a result of Covid-19 related restrictions placed on the mining permitting authority. It now appears that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) operating plan will restart Jan. 4, 2021, after the planned Christmas/New Year holiday shutdown.

The company recently completed an evaluation of the clean sand tailings that are a byproduct of the oil extraction process. It was determined that 60-70% of the sand falls within a 40-140 mesh size range and has a crush strength exceeding 8,000 psi, giving the sand an 8K crush factor and confirming that the sand is suitable for use as a frac sand.

The 20% of tailings grading larger than 40 mesh can be used as an aggregate for concrete. The Company is now working to develop sales channels for the frac sand and aggregate components of the tailings with a view towards maximizing the value of the clean sand tailings.

George Stapleton, Petroteq COO, commented, “While we had hoped to restart the plant last week, we should now be able to operate more or less continuously following the restart, without any planned Holiday shutdowns ahead of us. The test results obtained for the sand tailings are a welcome outcome. Any revenue received from the sale of frac sand and/or aggregate is expected to assist us in lowering the operating costs for the plant, thereby providing higher than expected netbacks per barrel of oil produced.”

Petroteq is a clean technology company focused on the development, implementation and licensing of a patented, environmentally safe and sustainable technology for the extraction and reclamation of heavy oil and bitumen from oil sands and mineable oil deposits

Related posts