Imperial Petroleum, Inc. (fka IPMN)

[$UPERMAN]

EVANSVILLE, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

(IPMN) Imperial Petroleum, Inc., on behalf of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Arrakis Oil Recovery, LLC, is pleased to provide the following update on its oil sands joint venture and business prospects:

The development of the Stampede Mine in Logan County, Kentucky is progressing despite weather delays to the pace of construction. Core drilling at several locations on the property indicates the Big Clifty oil sand ranges in thickness from about 15-20 feet across the permitted acreage. Surface mining has begun to stockpile ore at the Process facility awaiting installation of the ore crushing equipment.

The initial Process Unit to recover the heavy oil has been installed in the Process building and field testing has begun to recover heavy oil from crushed sands through the system consistent with previous tests of the system in Houston, Texas. Fabrication of the ore crushing circuit and installation of the tank battery and water recycling systems is underway.

Jeffrey Wilson, President of the Company, said, “In conjunction with our partners on this project, we began processing oil sands mined at the site through the Process Unit last week and recovered our first barrel of heavy oil at the site from this revolutionary process.

We expect to continue to run additional tests to evaluate the system and better understand and control any variables as the rest of the facility is completed over the next few weeks.

Although we have experienced several delays to construction due to weather, we are optimistic about completion of the installation and startup of this facility in the near future.

The project is designed to recover heavy oil from surface mineable oil sands at the rate of about 1,000 barrels of oil per day. We have also begun permitting a second site in the area and are working to complete that application as soon as possible.”