Oilsands Quest announces cancellation of sale of oil shale assets to Canshale
[ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases ... 11644.html ]
NYSE Amex: BQI August 13, 2010
CALGARY, Aug. 13 /CNW/ - Oilsands Quest Inc. (NYSE AMEX:BQI) ("OQI") announced today the cancellation of the previously disclosed sale of its oil shale assets located near Pasquia Hills, Saskatchewan to Canshale Corp. ("Canshale"). The sale of these assets was conditional upon Canshale raising a minimum of CDN $12.5 million by July 30. As Canshale was unable to secure that financing, the transaction has been cancelled and the oil shale assets continue to be owned by Oilsands Quest Inc.
OQI has recently had additional expressions of interest in the oil shale assets and will investigate these options to determine if a sale or joint venture of the oil shale assets is in the best interests of the company. This will allow continued focus of our financial and management resources on developing OQI's portfolio of oil sands projects.
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CanShale spends $4.6M in Hudson Bay area
[ http://www.leaderpost.com/business/CanS ... story.html ]
By Bruce Johnstone, Leader-Post August 20, 2013
The Calgary oilman who tried to be the first to develop Saskatchewan’s oilsands potential is attempting to become the first to develop the province’s oil shale resource.
Chris Hopkins, former president and CEO of Oilsands Quest, is heading up CanShale Corp., a Calgary-based private oil company, which spent $4.6 million in the August land sale to acquire three oil shale exploratory permits in the Hudson Bay area in northeastern Saskatchewan.
Oil shale — not to be confused with shale oil and shale gas — is a kerogen-bearing rock that contains immature hydrocarbons that have not converted to oil or gas. Kerogen is used as a source of kerosene, paraffin, fuel oil, lubricant and grease, among other things.
“These sediments ... were laid down in the ancient sea that was extensive across central North America. In the Saskatchewan area, the sediments are undisturbed and have never been buried deep enough to convert the hydrocarbon content into oil or gas,” Hopkins said.
“In our case, the rock is close to surface and could be mined and extracted through external processes.”
Discovered in Saskatchewan in 1913, and rediscovered by Sun Oil in the 1960s, oil shale was considered uneconomic to develop until recently. But Hopkins said kerogen is not a low-value product.
“It’s high value, but if it’s to be produced and sold as oil, it requires a process to convert the kerogen into oil,” Hopkins said, adding that CanShale’s Golden Plain North project has identified 2.9 billion barrels of kerogen in place in the Hudson Bay area.
Why Hopkins left the company he founded, Oilsands Quest, which went into creditor protection and saw its remaining assets sold for $10 million to Cenovus in 2012, is a complicated story better left to another day. Suffice to say, Hopkins left Oilsands Quest in early 2010 to set up CanShale, which was supposed to develop the oil shale assets of Oilsands Quest after raising $12.5 million through a share offering. However, that transaction was rescinded by Oilsands Quest’s board of directors and CanShale remains closely-held company.
“So we acquired our own properties independently of Oilsands Quest,” Hopkins said. “Oilsands Quest has followed its own course and part of its asset base was its oil shale interests. It converted a portion of those interests to a lease, which it ultimately sold to Cenovus. The remaining acreage was relinquished to the Crown a portion of which we acquired.”
Hopkins said CanShale is “exploration-focused company,” which intends to spend the next five or so years exploring the Hudson Bay area for oil shale. “We will not be producing the oil from the kerogen.”
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