Axial Vector Energy Corp. announced this morning that its PETRO AVEC JV partner, Petrosonics LLC, was recently awarded a patent in Egypt (Egyptian Patent Application No. PCT/NA/122/2006). This patent protects the process of removing sulfur from all types of crude oil fractions through sonic energy, oxidation as well as the removal of all of the oxidized sulfur through hydrotreatment. The patent will remain effective for 20 years.
According to the Oil and Gas Journal and the U.S. Department of Energy, Egypt’s proven oil reserves currently hold about 4 billion barrels. Egypt also has the largest refining sector on the African continent with nine refineries that have a combined crude oil processing capacity of 726,000 bbl/d.
Dr. Mazin Samman, lead PETRO AVEC licensing negotiator for Egypt stated, “International Oil Companies (IOCs), such as ENI, BP, Petronas, KUFPEC and others play a significant role in Egypt’s upstream sector on a production-sharing basis with most production coming from mature fields in the Gulf of Suez (50 percent) and the newer wells of the Western Desert. The international companies are already on our list of licensing candidates and the introduction of our technology opens up a lot of Egypt’s heavy oil potential, which has not yet been developed commercially. The refineries are all run by Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) subsidiaries and we look forward to be speaking with them as well.”
PETRO AVEC CEO Dr. Mark Cullen commented, “We’re pleased to add Egypt to the growing list of nations granting intellectual property protection. The timing is fortuitous, given EGPC’s ongoing plan to invest in five new refineries with up to a 300,000 pbd per refinery capacity. We are also interested in Egypt’s upstream heavy oil production and look forward to assisting as IOC investment permits.”
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