Xtract Regulatory News (XTR)

4 Jan 2007 12:01

Xtract Energy plc04 January 2007 4 January 2007 AIM: XTR XTRACT ENERGY PLC ("Xtract" or the "Company") Board changes Xtract announces that John Conlon has been appointed to the board of the Companywith effect from 4 January 2007. Mr Conlon is also a director of Cambrian Miningplc, Xtract's parent company. Xtract also announces that Carl Layden hasresigned as a director of the Company with effect from 1 January 2007, butremains a director of Xtract's shale oil subsidiary, Xtract Oil Limited, and aconsultant to the Company. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank Carl for his considerablecontribution to the Company as a board member and look forward to continuing towork with him. I am pleased that John Conlon has agreed to join the Board ofXtract. I believe that the Company will benefit greatly from his experience",said Xtract's CEO, John Newton. Enquiries: XtractJohn Newton 020 7409 0890Director John Conlon's details are as follows: Name: John Joseph Conlon Age: 67 Current directorships: Cambrian Mining plc Coal International plc Energybuild Group plc Western Canadian Coal Corporation (Canada) Past directorships Webcon Equipment Inc (Canada)(last 5 years) About Xtract Energy Plc Xtract's prime assets are its interest in shale oil deposits at Julia Creek inQueensland, Australia and a joint venture with the Australian research group,CSIRO, to develop a process for extracting oil from shale deposits. The initial validation tests, comprising small scale batch extractions of oil fromthe shale, have demonstrated that recovery from Xtract's Julia Creek shales inQueensland, Australia, would be in the order of 150 litres of light crude oilper tonne of shale. Earlier conventional retorting experiments indicated thatthe conversion of kerogen to oil yielded about 74 litres of oil per ton ofshale. Applying this rate of yield increase to the yields of 50 - 65 litres per tonneused earlier this year in Xtract's AIM admission document in relation to certainof Xtract's Julia Creek leases results in estimated in-situ shale oil resourcesof over 1.6 billion barrels of oil. Other energy assets held by Xtract are: • Approximately 65.5% of Cambrian Oil and Gas Plc ("COIL") which is developing oil and gas assets in the Kyrgyz Republic. COIL also owns 25% of the issued share capital of ASX listed Methanol Australia Ltd ("MEO"). MEO is focused on developing a gas-to-liquids project in the Timor Sea, approximately 275 km northwest of Darwin, Australia, in an area known as Tassie Shoal. It has secured Australian Commonwealth Government environmental approvals for two large scale (1.8 mtpa) methanol plants (50% interest) and a 3 mtpa LNG plant (100%), which is the only new Australia LNG project to receive its Commonwealth Government environmental approvals. • Approximately 19.1% of Wasabi Energy Limited which has rights to the Kallina power technology, uranium exploration interests in the Northern Territory, Australia, interests in the newly-formed Evolution Energy joint venture to produce bio-diesel fuel in Australia and in a coal deposit in Canada. • Approximately 18.2% of Aviva Corporation Limited with promising thermal coal deposits in the mid-west of Western Australia. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange