Dr. Michael A. Silverman, Executive Vice President, Technology, of Ivanhoe Energy says that Ivanhoe Energy has successfully processed Athabasca bitumen at its newly commissioned Feedstock Test Facility (FTF) in San Antonio, Texas. These FTF tests, which used processing configurations similar to those anticipated for identified commercial projects, provide additional validation of the Company's economic models for the Tamarack Project in Canada and the Pungarayacu Project in Ecuador.

The FTF is a state-of-the-art, multipurpose HTL testing facility that is being used for three primary purposes. First, the FTF is supporting the engineering and design of commercial HTL facilities for the Tamarack Project in Canada and the Pungarayacu Project in Ecuador. Second, the FTF will test heavy oil from other target projects around the world which are under evaluation. Third, the FTF will generate representative commercial grade product for marketing discussions.

The data generated in these recent Athabasca bitumen FTF tests, which were run in operating modes closely aligned with target project operations, has very good correlation with the extensive data generated in Ivanhoe Energy's Commercial Demonstration Facility (CDF) in Bakersfield, California, as well as in previous test units. These correlations include liquid yields, coke yield, viscosity destruction, and reduction of acidity, sulfur and metals.

"Our first two months of experience operating our new FTF has provided us with great confidence in the robustness of the operating parameters we are assuming in our economic models", said Dr. Silverman. "In addition, these tests provide significant hard data that support our engineers and AMEC, our Tier-1 contractor, as we work toward completion of the basic engineering designs for commercial facilities".

Tags: Ivanhoe Energy Inc.