Keystone XL Dies With Alberta Oil Sands, but Utah Thrives

LONDON, November 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Oil prices continue their slump, Keystone XL is dead and several major oil sands projects have been scrapped-but America's first-ever clean oil sands project in Utah is defying the market with low-cost production.

The decision to kill Keystone XL was an economic one: with the major oil sands projects that were to supply the pipeline going under, it no longer makes sense. Now, some $60 billion of Canadian oil sands projects are in big trouble, unable to withstand high production costs and low oil prices.

Shell has moved to scrap its 80,000-barrel/day Carmon Creek project. And earlier this year, three major Canadian companies said they would halt new projects and expansions, and Total and Statoil have also thrown in the towel.

Breaking away from this trend, one North American oil sands project is thriving, led by MCW Energy Group (MCWEF:OTCQB; TSV:MCW.V). The project debuted in Utah with a breakthrough technology that offers not only low production costs that can withstand price volatility, but also gives us the previously impossible: a clean way to produce oil sands.

Major Canadian oil sands projects require $80 oil to break even. MCW's clean oil sands extraction plant at Asphalt Ridge, Utah, is producing 250 barrels per day for only $27-$30 per barrel. This is low enough to turn a profit even in today's market. And when the company finishes building its second 5,000/bpd plant, we're looking at costs closer to $20 per barrel.

The plant is right in the heart of Utah's Green River Formation at Asphalt Ridge, which alone is believed to hold some 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

Experts estimate that production using this new technology in Utah is more profitable than any other oil sands project in North America, and more profitable than today's shale production.

This combination of clean and profitable even attracted the former Exxon president of Arabian Gulf operations, Dr. R Gerald Bailey, to Utah, where today he is the CEO of MCW.

Once washed with MCW's patented solvent, the sand comes out 99.9 percent clean before it is returned to the Earth, according to Dr. Bailey.

Asphalt Ridge is rising thanks to game-changing technology that is leading us to an oil sands revolution; something that makes sense to everyone.

By James Burgess of Oilprice.com

SOURCE Oilprice.com