UTS Energy Corporation

Fort Hills oil sands project - production & upgrading of bitumen

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UTS Energy Profile

UTS Energy Corporation, Calgary, Alberta. TSX : UTS; UTS’ principal focus is the production and upgrading of bitumen from the oil sands deposits associated with the Fort Hills oil sands project (“Fort Hills Project” or “FHP”) and the development of our other lands.

UTS holds a 20% interest in the Fort Hills Project through its interests in Fort Hills Energy Corporation and the Fort Hills Energy Limited Partnership.

The other Fort Hills Partners are Petro-Canada with a 60% interest and Teck Cominco Limited (“Teck”) with a 20% interest. Petro-Canada Oil Sands Inc. is the contract operator for the Fort Hills Project.

Focused on intrinsic value growth through discovery and development of hydrocarbon resource, mainly mineable oil sands leases.

  • Net cash of ~$320 MM at Jan. 1, 2009*
  • $754 MM of remaining earn-in by Fort Hills partners at Jan. 1, 2009
  • Based on current budget forecasts UTS is completely funded through to early 2011
  • Total management estimated resources of approximately 2.1 B barrels net to UTS:
  • Fort Hills Partnership (800 MM bbls)
  • Equinox Project (175 MM bbls)
  • Frontier Project (1,150 MM bbls)
  • 240,000 acres of Exploration Lands

Beyond the Fort Hills Project, UTS has expanded the scope of its opportunities through exploration and continued evaluation of the development potential of its other leases acquired jointly with Teck.

These other leases are expected to provide organic growth opportunities and future funding flexibility for UTS. Accordingly, on March 25, 2008, UTS released its preliminary development plans for the new Equinox and Frontier oil sands mining projects. Further, UTS believes that the right to participate in future expansions of the Sturgeon Upgrader makes it a strategic asset for the development of its other leases and potentially for processing third party bitumen on a merchant basis.

Fort Hills Partnership

  • Petro-Canada (Operator) 60% WI
  • UTS Energy Corporation 20% WI
  • Teck Cominco 20% WI

Together with our partners Petro-Canada and Teck, we plan to develop, mine, extract, upgrade, and market synthetic crude oil from the oil sands underlying Leases 5, 8, and 52 (the “FHP Leases”), which encompass approximately 46,000 contiguous acres approximately 90 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, Alberta.

These FHP Leases are adjacent to Syncrude’s North Aurora Mine and north of Albian’s Muskeg River Mine. The Fort Hills Project is one of the last major undeveloped oil sands mining resources.

The resource is well defined, with a 4.0 billion barrel resource estimate (Sproule Associates Limited 2007 Best Estimate) and attractive development options. In addition, the Partnership holds Leases 437, 438 and 634 underlying approximately 14,400 acres contiguous to the Fort Hills Project.

The Year Ahead

  • Execute winter 2008/2009 drilling program
  • Frontier contingent resource (Q1 2009)
  • Frontier Extension - discovered resource on L610 & L840 (Q1 2009)
  • Decision expected with respect to extensions to the Fort Hills lease retention milestones (H1 2009)
  • Sturgeon Upgrader regulatory approval (H1 2009)
  • FHP Partner Consensus on Project – Size, Scope & Budget (H1 2009)
  • Select lead banking relationships and progress financing plan (H2 2009)
  • Fort Hills Project investment decision / reserves booking (H2 2009)
  • Lease 421 area drilling preliminary results (Q4 2009)

Last changed at 28-Jan-2009 09:17AM by Highgrader