Xtract Regulatory News (XTR)

6 Sep 2006 12:34

Xtract Energy plc06 September 2006 6 September 2006 XTRACT ENERGY PLC ("Xtract" or the "Company") Xtract announces that initial validation tests have shown that the recovery oflight crude oil products from the Company's Julia Creek, Australia, shale oildeposits may be much higher than could be achieved using conventional retortrecovery techniques. The tests are being conducted by the Australian national research organisation,the CSIRO, and by the Monash University under research agreements entered intowith Xtract. They are aimed at testing the Julia Creek oil shales in a solventextraction process. The initial validation tests, comprising small scale batch extractions of oilfrom the shale, have demonstrated that recovery from Julia Creek shales would bein order of 150 litres of light crude oil per tonne of shale. Earlierconventional retorting experiments indicated that the conversion of kerogen tooil yielded about 74 litres of oil per ton of shale. Applying this rate of yield increase to the yields of 50 - 65 litres per tonneused earlier this year in the Company's admission document in relation tocertain of the Company's Julia Creek leases results in estimated in-situ shaleoil resources of over 1.6 billion barrels of oil. Julia Creek oil shale contains about 19% by weight of the hydrocarbon precursor,kerogen. These small scale bench tests are believed by the Company to be very encouragingand to justify larger scale validation testing. Research is continuing in orderto optimise operational temperatures, pressures and feed size. In addition,larger scale batch tests are scheduled to prepare for developmental, continuousoil extraction tests. International consulting engineers, Worley Parsons, have been appointed byXtract to prepare a feasibility study for the application of the solventextraction process for the production of oil from the Company's Julia Creek oilshales. Enquiries: XtractSue Wickerson 020 8466 0406Director The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approved byDr. John Shirley, (Managing Director of Xtract Oil Limited) who has a BSc andPhD in Geophysics from the University of Tasmania and is a member of theAustralian Society of Petroleum Engineers. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange