TomCo Energy plc (LON:TOM), the US operating oil development group focused on using innovative technology to unlock unconventional hydrocarbon resources, has provided an update in respect of Greenfield Energy LLC, the Company’s recently formed 50/50 joint venture with Valkor LLC, and the upgrades being undertaken by Greenfield to Petroteq Energy Inc’s existing oil sands plant at Asphalt Ridge, Utah pursuant to the work order to seek to demonstrate the POSP’s commerciality.
The Company is pleased to confirm that work to upgrade the capacity and improve the reliability of the POSP is well underway, with the restart of the plant now planned for November 2020. Recent and ongoing developments include:
· Plant evaluation, verification and debottlenecking support by Valkor for the POSP, including the design of upgrades needed to:
– increase reliability towards 24/7 operations;
– decrease the incremental cost per barrel of oil produced; and
– increase the POSP’s capacity to 400 barrels per day average, with a target of 500 barrels per day, processing oil sands ore having an oil saturation of 7%.
· All equipment needed for the upgrade of the POSP has been defined, sourced and purchased with deliveries to the site scheduled over the course of the next few weeks;
· Control system components and instrumentation are now on order, with the longest lead time items scheduled for delivery during October 2020;
· Construction work at the POSP to make it ready to receive and incorporate the additional equipment and control systems is proceeding, with pads for new equipment prepared and piping system modifications ongoing; and
· Modifications to the POSP to connect MSAR® commercial production equipment and MSAR® test equipment from Quadrise Fuels International plc (“Quadrise”) for post processing of produced oil are in progress, with the intention to undertake testing before the year end in cooperation with Greenfield and Quadrise.
In accordance with the work order and the Greenfield JV agreement, Valkor personnel will remain on site during the start-up of the POSP and, once operational, will continue to manage the plant in favour of Petroteq.
Commenting, John Potter, CEO of TomCo, said: “Having just returned from a productive site visit to the POSP, I am delighted with the progress that has been made in such a short time and against the backdrop of COVID-19. The POSP has been made ready to receive the outstanding equipment and control system components to complete the planned upgrade. With our partners we are targeting the restart of production at the POSP in November 2020 as we then seek to demonstrate its commerciality. I look forward to providing further updates as we progress.”
