Dec 15, 2021
Valkor has received a third party evaluation of the oil sands technology, confirming technical and economic feasibility below $25 per bbl production cost.
After 2.5 years of optimization of the oil sands demonstration plant, Valkor achieved steady state operations with commercial grade products, both oil and sand. Early efforts were focused on plant reliability, due to the age of equipment, while more recent work focused on throughput and lower BS&W (total solids and water). The plant is able to achieve short duration production rates of near 600 bopd with sustained rates of 300 bopd. The oil product is approximately 8.5 API with 0.3% or less BS&W.
With all milestones reached and a FEED study completed for a 5000 bopd plant, a third party technical and commercial review was contracted. Kahuna out of Denver was selected to do the work and they witnessed production over an extended period, confirmed inputs and outputs of ore, oil and sand as well as power and fuel consumed. Together with a technical review of the FEED study engineering, the report concluded that the 5000 bopd oil sands plant is technically feasible and economically profitable with an expected incremental cost of production of $22.50 per bbl or less.