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Petroteq Tar Sands :Pocessing

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Petroteq Tar Sands :Pocessing

Unread postby Carnot » Sun 18 Mar 2018, 13:18:29

Recently Oilprice.com have been promoting a company called Petroteq who have supposedly developed a low cost solvent extraction process for tar sand bitumen, with claims of production costs in the low $20 per barrle equivalent.

I am always sceptical of such claims and delved deeper, finding the patent owned by Petroteq and some similar patents from Exxon and Shell. I made a critical response to the Oilprice.com article which were never published, not surprising as Oilprice.com often feature companies which border on a pump and dump exercise.

As ever the patent is written in typical patent prose bu the cut and thrust is a dul solvent approach most likley using petane and an oxygenated solvent like acetone, though it could also be an alcohol (unlikley) or an ester.

Exxon has a prior patent using pentane and acetone, or heptane and acetone. To the best of my knowledge Exxon have not made any ridiculous claims about low cost extraction and so far appear not to be currently using this process technology, which is not surprising.

Looking at this company and some of the other claims of blockchain technology makes me uncomfortable - The word scam comes to mind. Anyone thinking of investing in this company would do well to do their homework, particularly on the management team. This type of company follows a well trodden path. Make some claims of some technological breakthrough. Repeat it enough and build some pilot facility and repeat the claim. Pump up the company and then go for an IPO. Sell up and move on. Familiar. Try Sulphco, Kior. and Solazyme for a start. This one will be next.
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Re: Petroteq Tar Sands :Pocessing

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Sun 18 Mar 2018, 16:42:54

Carnot – You’re rather late with the warning. Petroteq hit the market in Oct 2012 at $36 (Canadian) per share. Topped out in Nov 2013 at $45/share. Bottomed out at $0.36/share in Aug 2017 and now back up to $1.56/share. Risky now but maybe better odds then the lottery. Maybe. LOL.

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp ... P6GSY3n6So

And here's an announcement about a $100,000 stock offering:

https://globenewswire.com/news-release/ ... ities.html

A $100,000. LMFAO!. It will probably cost more then that to get their patent approved.
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Re: Petroteq Tar Sands :Pocessing

Unread postby Carnot » Mon 19 Mar 2018, 02:36:06

Rockman, I knew that they had history as McWhorter (MCWFE) but not the share price history. Thanks

What grabbed my attention was the blatant pumping in Oilprice.com and the latest wheeze of Blockchain management, whatever that might be. They have also hooked up with some old fart from Exxon to try and add credibility.

I can post a link to their patent ( really boring read) which has been issued but a roll of toilet paper would have a greater value. Much softer of your backside.

As I said pump and dump. Best avoided.
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Re: Petroteq Tar Sands :Pocessing

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 19 Mar 2018, 13:29:54

Carnot - From the little I know solvent extraction is a viable technique. OTOH it's difficult to imagine any sort of a huge improvement. Maybe some tweaking to improve the economics a tiny bit. Saw the same thing when slick water fracs were hyped. Did see some improvements. OTOH depending on where the wells were it turned out to be less effective then previous efforts.
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Re: Petroteq Tar Sands :Pocessing

Unread postby Carnot » Mon 19 Mar 2018, 16:41:19

Rockman,

Solvent extraction is widely used in refineries. Aromatic extraction, lube refining and more. But it comes at a cost. Energy is required to recover the solvent and in the case of tar sands complete recovery will likely to be difficult so significant make up volumes would be required.

If, and its a big if, it works and is as cheap as claimed why are Exxon and Shell not using it. Exxon prefers to drill out the Permian. Just a thought.
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