AER Approves Prosper Petroleum’s Rigel SAGD Project

Prosper Petroleum Ltd. is pleased to have received the Decision Report (2018 ABAER 005) from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) concerning the Rigel Project.

Prosper is a private upstream oil and gas company headquartered in Calgary Alberta.  The company has land holdings in Alberta and Saskatchewan and is mainly focused on heavy oil and oil sands.  The company owns mineral rights in both provinces in excess of 100,000 acres.

Prosper’s flagship property is an oil sands lease located in the Athabasca Oil Sands area.  Prosper acquired this property in 2012 and has conducted two oil sands evaluation programs consisting of stratigraphic wells and 3-D seismic.  The results of these programs have shown an oil-in-place volume of more than 500 MM bbls.

In 2013, Prosper filed an application with the Alberta Energy Regulator for a steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) project on its land.  This application, known as the Rigel Project, is expected to sustain production of 10,000 bopd for a period of 24 years. The application was approved by the AER on June 12, 2018 following a public hearing in Fort McMurray.

“We are pleased that we have received a positive decision from the Regulator and look forward to moving the Rigel Project forward through the construction and production stages” said Carrie Cochran.  “Prosper intends to proceed as soon as practical and we believe that this project will provide meaningful benefits to Prosper shareholders and all Albertans.  We appreciate the concerns expressed with our project from Fort McKay First Nation and Fort McKay Metis and the potential impact on their ability to conduct traditional land use activities; however, we believe we have taken the appropriate steps to mitigate their concerns and will continue to work with them to ensure those impacts are minimized”.

Prosper and its partner, Petrolama Namur Oil Sands Exploration, anticipate initiating construction in Q4, 2018, with first oil in Q1 2020. Construction of the project will result in 750 direct person-years of employment, with an additional 300 person-years of employment during the operations phases. The Rigel Project will create $15 MM in property taxes to the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, $440 MM in corporate taxes to the provincial and federal governments, and $1.5 B in royalties. The AER concluded that the Rigel Project is in the best interests of Alberta.