Ever wonder what it takes to get salable oil out of eastern Utah’s tar sands? Petroteq Energy Inc. has the only operating oil sands extraction facility in Utah and now it has released a seven-minute video that explains the process.
“Follow the Molecule,” produced by V6 Media of Vernal, provides a virtual tour of the Asphalt Ridge oil processing plant. The tour is narrated by Petroteq CEO David Sealock and takes place while the plant is in operation. It can be viewed on the Petroteq website or on Vimeo at https://Vimeo.com/341690341.
“‘Follow the Molecule’ provides a unique opportunity for shareholders and analysts to view the revolutionary, environmentally friendly process that the company has implemented to exploit its total gross contingent resource of in excess of 130 million barrels of surface oil sands heavy oil in place,” Petroteq said in a release to shareholders.
The video details the transformation of highly oil-saturated feed ore recovered from the mining operation to heavy crude oil in the sales tank through a combination of video and animated process diagrams to provide an understanding of the company’s proprietary processes.
Paul Thompson, facility operations consultant at the Asphalt Ridge plant is also seen explaining the process in the video.
“I am delighted to be able to show our investors the results of the company’s efforts over the last two years,” said Sealock. “We believe we have achieved commercial operations, both in terms of plant run time and quality of the crude oil produced. The current maintenance program the company is conducting is anticipated to get us in a position to consistently produce the grade of crude oil our customers expect and better implement production expansion in a timely and efficient manner.”
Petroteq began planned equipment modifications to the sand separation process in May. The equipment alterations are expected to decrease future maintenance costs and increase the efficiency of the facility in reaching its production goals of up to 4,000 barrels per day by end of 2020.