Press Release October 9, 1998

Innovation Award for Sand Consolidation Process

For Immediate Release:

Cleansorb Limited has received an award in the prestigious Hampshire Innovation Competition 1998 for an enzyme-based process which strengthens poorly consolidated sandstones.

The process uses catalysts (enzymes) to produce chemical changes in the underground formation. This leads to deposition of minerals on the sand grains, increasing the amount of cementation and therefore the degree of consolidation.

About half of oil production worldwide is from sandstone. If the sand grains within the rock are poorly consolidated (stuck together) sand can enter the oil during production resulting in damage to tubing, chokes, valves and pipebends and possible loss of production.

The Cleansorb process is expected to offer operational, environmental and cost benefits over present approaches to sand control. Ian McKay, a director of Cleansorb said "Around 20,000 wells are drilled in sandstone every year. Many of them only achieve 20 to 55% of the wells potential because the current physical or chemical methods used for sand control restrict production. The increasing use of horizontal drilling means many wells are now very long, making the use of existing methods prohibitively expensive or technically difficult. For example, although epoxy resin is an effective chemical method of sand control, only about three metres of wellbore can be treated at a time. Our process should allow the whole wellbore to be treated at once, greatly simplifying sand control treatments".

The technology was developed by Cleansorb during a CRAFT Exploratory Project, part funded by the European Commission. A number of patent applications have been made, covering methods for the deposition of minerals, gels and resins in underground formations. Cleansorb is working with several operators to develop individual processes for oilfield use.

Notes for editors:
1. The Hampshire Innovation Competition is the largest competition of its kind in the South of England and is open to entrants from Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, The Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands. The competition is run by the Hampshire Innovation Service and has £30,000 worth of prizes, in cash and kind. Contact: John Stainer, Hampshire Innovation Service, Tel. ++ 44 (0) 1705 666622

2. Cleansorb Limited, based in Guildford, Surrey,  UK, specialises in developing enzyme-based processes which assist oil and gas production. Cleansorb's lead product is Arcasolve(TM) a method for producing acid in the wellbore or formation which has a number of advantages over present acidizing methods in a number of applications, including the efficient removal of drilling damage from long horizontal wells. Contact: Ian McKay, Tel. ++ 44 (0) 1483 295090 or Fax. ++ 44 (0) 1483 845358

3. Papers on the use of enzymes in oilfield applications were given by Cleansorb at the Society for Petroleum Engineers meeting in The Hague, The Netherlands on 20-22 October 1998 (European Petroleum Conference - EUROPEC) and the Institute of Petroleum Conference on Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery held at the Institute of Petroleum, London, UK on 4 November 1998. Contacts: SPE, Tel. ++ 44 (0)171 408 4466; IP, Tel. ++ 44 (0) 171 467 7100

Released by Cleansorb Ltd - this is public information released by Cleansorb Ltd to potential customers and the news media and can be freely copied and disseminated. 9 October 1998.

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