By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 7 -- Uranium Power Corp. reached agreement with Western Petrochemicals Corp. to earn a 60% interest in the Pasquia Hills oil shale joint venture in the next 4 years. Both are Calgary firms.
The joint venture owns 700,000 acres of oil shale permits in Pasquia Hills, Sask.
Western's $2 million (Can.) spent to date included drilling 45 holes to evaluate the deposit's core area.
Consultants advised that the 100,000-acre core area contains a geologic resource of 4.3 billion bbl of oil with a cut off grade of 4% hydrocarbons and an average grade of 7% hydrocarbons.
The oil contains 58% natural aromatics, of which 45% is benzene, which are valuable petrochemical feed stocks.
The resource calculation includes 117 million bbl of measured oil, 350 million bbl of indicated oil, and 3.9 billion bbl of inferred oil with the exploration potential for further resources outside the core area of interest.
Uranium Power said the joint venture's initial focus is to complete a development program to achieve production at a cost of $3.5 million.
Earth Energy Resources Ltd. has previously successfully tested a limited number of oil shale samples from the Carrot River area of Pasquia Hills.
Further samples are being sent to Earth Energy and its consultants for analysis using the Earth Energy Catalyst.
The preliminary mine plan indicates that the shale ore is 70 ft below the surface and 100 ft thick with a strip mining ratio of .65 to 1.
The formation of interest is the Cretaceous Second Whitespecks, which is nearly flat lying and of consistent grade.
Pasquia Hills is 210 miles northeast of Regina near the town of Hudson Bay, Sask.
