Petrobank Charging

For those who do not know why this is important, Petrobank is the company that is launching THAI/CAPRI technology in the Alberta Tarsands and in heavy oil resources worldwide. The technology has been completely successful to date and we now have an economic method of production that will ultimately be able to supply at least a third of global oil demand without the massive problems associated with mining and other present methods.

Think US demand at 15,000,000 barrels per day and then consider that this technology can replace all that demand out of Alberta just as quickly as we can drill 1000 barrel per day shallow horizontal production wells. That is exactly 15,000 wells in the Tarsands. It can also include a few hundred wells in some of the heavy oil reserves in the US, although simple economics are likely to favor the Tarsands for decades.

Whatever happens to the oil industry and whatever happens to all other energy solutions, we can be certain that this company will be a major player in the oil industry for decades to come.

We have burned a trillion barrels, and we have a trillion barrels of the easy stuff left, and these guys are on the way to be the key player in the recovery of the three trillion plus worth of heavy oil. If it takes a century or a millennium, this is the technology that enables it.

Petrobank boasts record year

By Shaun Polczer, Calgary HeraldMarch 13, 2009

Despite a 30 per cent drop in fourth-quarter profits, Calgary-based Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd. had its best full-year result ever on the strength of higher production from its unconventional oil and gas plays.

The Calgary-based company said net income tripled in 2008 to $244.5 million, or$2.76 per share, even as fourth-quarter profits fell to $28.08 million, or 34 cents a share, from $40.15 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier.

Cash flow jumped 281 per cent in 2008 to $665.9 million, or $7.28 per diluted common share, as production soared 181 per cent to 28,742 barrels per day (bpd) from 10,243 bpd in 2007. Petrobank said higher production enabled it to offset the effects of lower commodity prices in the second half.

"Petrobank's production growth coupled with high world oil prices during the first three quarters of the year combined to generate record levels of cash flow and net income," the company said in a statement.

Petrobank said its Canadian results were underpinned by the performance of the Bakken unconventional oil play in southeast Saskatchewan where it produced almost 20,000 barrels a day. In addition, the company has interests in the Montney and Horn River natural gas plays.

The company said it continues to progress with its toe-to-heel air injection, or THAI, fire flood technology that employs in-situ combustion to loosen thick heavy oil deposits and upgrade it underground. Work on a variation of the THAI technique using chemical catalysts--dubbed CAPRI--also continues.

Petrobank's wholly owned subsidiary, Archon Technologies Ltd.,was granted two new U.S. patents for improvements that add features to the existing THAI and CAPRI technologies and extend the life of the existing intellectual property to 2026.

Three other patent applications are pending, Petrobank said, covering a "heel-to-toe" combustion design, catalyst placement for CAPRI and downhole solvent injection.

Petrobank is continuing to license the technology to third-party opera-tors and late in the fourth quarter entered into royalty, technology licence and a joint venture agreements with True Energy Trust to apply the technology on portions of its Kerrobert heavy oil property in west central Saskatchewan.

Despite the downturn, Petrobank said it continues to negotiate joint ventures around the globe and expects to announce another joint project in the near future.

"We continue to receive worldwide interest in our technology."

Andrew Potter, an analyst with UBS in Calgary, said Petrobank finished the fourth quarter "on a strong note" despite softer commodity prices and maintained a "buy" rating with a 12-month target of $42 on the stock.

Petrobank shares surged more than eight per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, up $1.61 to $21.67.

SPOLCZER@THEHERALD.CANWEST.COM