September 7 th , 2006
PRESS RELEASE; For Immediate Release.
Palm Beach Gardens , FL – (Market
Wire) –9/7/06
Nevtah Capital Management (Symbol:
NTAH-OTC) and its joint venture partner, Black Sands Energy,
have signed an agreement to acquire a key leasehold property
within the richest portion of the Sunnyside Deposit in
the Utah Oil Sands.
The Sunnyside Deposit, according to the Lewin & Associates
Report, 1983 ranges in field richness from 100,000 to 600,000
bbl/acre. The Report's assessments were based on actual
well-log and core data, supplemented by geological interpretation
and previously published studies. Nevtah/Black Sands' recently-acquired,
privately-held lease consists of 5500 acres and is located
in the richest portion of this deposit. The joint venture
partners will now commission an independent consulting
firm to provide a comprehensive reserve analysis, together
with levels of measured, indicated and inferred resources.
A substantial volume of core data on this lease is available
for analysis. The Sunnyside Deposit contains substantially
richer pay zones than the Asphalt Ridge and PR Spring Deposits
nearby. A report commissioned by the U.S. Department of
the Interior-Bureau of Mines (March, 1976) by the Eyring
Research Institute rated the Sunnyside Deposit as “the
deposit most favorable for large scale surface mining.
The principal reason for this rating is the thick pay zones.”
The Sunnyside Deposit in the Utah Oil Sands is the
second largest of the major oil sands deposits with reserves
of 6.0 billion bbl. (As compared with Tar Sand Triangle
(16.0 billion bbl, Asphalt Ridge (1.5 billion bbl) and
PR Spring (4.5 billion bbl). It is situated on the southwest
flank of the Uinta Basin , about 18 miles east of the town
of Price , Utah . The deposit is exposed along the western
side of the Roan Cliffs, from Rock Creek on the south to
Nine Mile Creek on the north. Elevations of bitumen-saturated
outcrops range from about 8,900 feet to 9,700 feet. Topography
is characterized by high-relief and rugged terrain. The
Sunnyside Deposit covers an area of 122 square miles. Land
ownership is mostly private with some federal and state
land.
The Sunnyside Deposit contains bitumen –saturated
units occurring within both the Green River and Colton
Formations (Shenk & Pollastro, 1987). The Green River
Formation consists of shale, marlstone, siltstone, sandstone,
limestone and tuff. Beds of shale, siltstone compose the
Colton Formation. Two zones of saturation have been identified
in the subsurface. The upper zone crops out in several
drainages and may have a gross thickness of up to 1,000
feet. The lower zone, 800 – 900 feet below the upper zone,
is between 1,300 and 1,900 feet. The U.S. Geological Survey
estimated that the Sunnyside bituminous-sandstone-resource
consisted of about 1.6 billion cubic yards of material.
Of this, they estimated that 0.9 billion cubic yards included
measured plus indicated resources, with 0.7 billion cubic
yards as inferred resources. The U.S. Bureau of Mines translated
this estimate into 720 million bbl of oil equivalent, of
which 409.5 million bbl included measured plus indicated
resources, and 318.5 million bbl were inferred resources.
Ritzma (1979), using additional data, classified the deposit
as “giant” and estimated that between 3.5 and 4.0 billion
bbl oil were contained in-place. Of this estimate, he classified
1.25 billion as measured, 1.75 billion as indicated, and
the remaining 0.5 to 1 billion as inferred.
The Sunnyside Deposit has a rich history of major
oil company exploration activities over the past forty
years. In 1963-64, Shell Oil collected cores from numerous
boreholes as part of an evaluation program that eventually
led to an experimental in-situ steamflood in 1966. Shell
continued evaluation of the deposit and drilled additional
core holes in 1967. (Thurber & Welbourn, 1977) Signal
Oil & Gas, in 1967, attempted an in-situ steam process
using horizontal holes to recover oil. Pan-American Petroleum
Corporation also performed an in-situ steamflood in 1966.
Texaco and Gulf later conducted coring operations within
the deposit. During 1982, Enercor performed preliminary
mining feasibility studies on their acquired leases. Phillips
Petroleum, Sabine Resources, Cities Service and Amoco all
considered development of the oil/tar sand resources at
Sunnyside. Chevron Resource Company signed an operating
agreement with Great National Corporation (GNC) for the
development of 2,000 acres of the Sunnyside Deposit in
1982. GNC had been involved in development of this deposit
since the late 1970's and had also proposed to build a
pilot plant. Under the Chevron/GNC agreement, bitumen-saturated
material was mined and test-processed at Chevron's pilot
plant located next to Chevron's refinery north of Salt
Lake City . (Covington & Young, 1985)
Despite considerable efforts and expenditures over
this forty year period by more than ten major oil and gas
companies, the oil sands remained a virtually untouched
resource due to the lack of an economically viable, commercial
technology. Coupled with this failure and the sagging prices
of oil into the 1990's, the Utah Oil Sands have remained “ America
's Forgotten Resource.” The joint venture partners realize
the vast potential of this extremely large oil sand lease,
which will become the flagship lease for the their proven,
closed-loop extraction system that will produce oil for
less than $ 12.50 USD per barrel delivered to the refineries
in nearby Salt Lake City. The system is earth-friendly,
has near-zero solvent loss, produces minimal greenhouse
gases and returns the cleaned-up sands back to the environment,
leaving the ecosystem in better-than-original condition.
This highly-scalable technology does not require water
and works efficiently on a wide range of host oil and sediment
types.
The joint venture partners are currently negotiating
several additional lease opportunities in the Utah Oil
Sand area. The recently completed 500 bbl/day production
unit is currently being successfully demonstrated in Oklahoma
to several groups of large and small oil companies, potential
joint venture partners and lease owners.
Nevtah Capital Management adheres to the provisions,
regulations and specifications of the Safe Harbor Act.
Contact:
Paul Davey
Investor Services
(778) 389-0915
info@nevtahoilsands.com
Mr. Daniel P. Kesonen
President & CEO
Nevtah Capital Management Inc.
(561) 626-9901
For more information,
please contact:
Daniel P. Kesonen President & CEO
Nevtah Capital Management Corp.
(561)
626-9901
