Technology
Extracting Synthetic Oil from Oil Shale

After careful study, OSEC currently intends to use the Alberta-Taciuk ("ATP") Process (a patented retort process) as the technology to process the mined oil shale into shale oil at the White River Mine.

The ATP Process is a unique thermal processing technology which is applicable to numerous industrial uses. The process vaporizes and recovers organic constituents existing in a large range of feedstock materials. The ATP Process was originally developed in 1976 for treating Alberta oil sands and was later refined for use in oil shale and other operations. The ATP Process has been successfully used at the Stuart Project in Queensland, Australia, which produced more than 1.5 million barrels of shale oil. OSEC believes that the ATP Process is one of the most proven, economical and efficient processes for extracting oil from oil shale. China is currently expanding it's oil shale production. A large expansion, using the ATP Process, will process an additional 1 million tons per year. The new ATP plant will be operational in 2009.

While the ATP Process is a proven technology, oil shale processing technologies are evolving worldwide every day. Many other countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Estonia, Germany, Jordan, Israel, Russia and Thailand are developing their own oil shale resources and technology. OSEC will actively explore all state-of-the-art processing technologies as the company progresses through the RD&D project and into its commercial phase.

The ATP process was originally developed in Canada for processing oil sands but has been adapted to treat oil shale.

Dan Elcan of OSEC states, "The ATP process is a unique process that has actually extracted 1.5 million barrels of oil from oil shale and they did that in Queensland,