Candian Oil Sands Overview

Unprecedented Upside.  The Canadian Oil Sands rivals Saudi Arabia as the largest oil play in the world with 315 billion barrels of estimated recoverable resources.  Grizzly Oil Sands, ULC ("Grizzly") owns approximately 512,000 acres in Alberta oil sands.  Gulfport, through its 24.9999% ownership in Grizzly, is a sizeable player in the Canadian Oil Sands with approximately 128,000 acres.  Highlighted facts regarding our Canadian Oil Sands assets include:

  • The oil sands are deposits of bitumen, a molasses-like viscous oil that will not flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbons
  • Since making the strategic decision to invest Grizzly Oil Sands ULC, Gulfport has acquired the largest acreage position of any US independent producer. Devon is the next closest with 75,000 acres
  • The vast majority of Grizzly's acreage was aquired by the summer of 2007, by which time virtually all prospective acreage had been leased
  • Alberta's highly prospective oil sands land base is now essentially leased-up and Grizzly is positioned to take advantage of the lease supply shortfall
  • Given that many of the leases offset viable projects, Grizzly's non-concentrated land base increases the likelihood of multiple significant farm out and land swap opportunities
  • Various Grizzly leases directly offset: Nexen/OPTI, ConocoPhillips, Imperial Oil / Petro-Canada, Encana, Jacos, Statoil, Chevron / Shell / Marathon, Value Creation, Athabasca Oil Sands and Laricina
  • Following the 2006 drilling seasons, third party engineers DeGloyer and McNaughten issued a report estimating total bitumen in place for seven Grizzly properties as 11.9 billion barrels over an area of 152,564 acres for sand greater than 10 meters of thickness
  • Grizzly is developing its Algar Lake Project with the intent of employing a method of in-situ extraction called Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) to produce the leasehold
  • Approximately 2,500 barrels per day of net production equivalent to Gulfport on an estimated facility and well pair capital expenditure of approximately $90 million
    • Potential for 3.65 million barrels per year, with approximately 900,000 barrels net to Gulfport
    • Resource potential of approximately 100  million barrels per facility, with approximately 25 million barrels net to Gulfport

 

Maps/Images

Source for Some Images: Energy Resources Conservation Board, ST98-2008: Alberta's Reserves 2007 and Supply/Demand Outlook 2008-2017, June 2008

Grizzly Oil Sands Appoints New CEO

Grizzly announced the appointment of John V. Pearce to the position of Chief Executive Officer on August 26, 2008. 

Prior to joining Grizzly, Mr. Pearce served as Director of Business Development, Thermal Heavy Oil, for Devon Canada.  Mr. Pearce managed Devon's portfolio of thermal heavy oil leases and was responsible for lease selection, preliminary design, permitting, project management and operations engineering functions for the 35,000 bpd Jackfish project, currently in operation, as well as for the Jackfish 2 project, which is in the final stages of regulatory approval. 

Mr. Pearce is a Professional Engineer with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Alberta.  Mr. Pearce began his career with Esso Resources Canada, where he spent most of his time with Esso's thermal operations at Cold Lake.  Prior to his employment with Devon, Mr. Pearce served as President of Premier Environmental Management, where he was responsible for the creation of detailed and conceptual designs for thermal and primary heavy oil projects in Alberta, Italy, and Oman, among other assignments.