Quadrise PLC on Thursday said it is yet to find sufficient evidence of an oil deposit to support the unitisation plan as part of its project with Valkor Technologies LLC in the US state of Utah.

The London-based supplier of MSAR and bioMSAR emulsion technology, fuels and biofuels said a meeting of Utah’s board of oil, gas and mining was held on Wednesday to review a unitisation plan.

The plan would involve drilling of up to 119 wells to establish the asphalt ridge enhanced recovery unit for the in-situ production of heavy oil from sands by Valkor, on behalf of project sponsors Heavy Sweet Oil LLC and AC Oil LLC.

Quadrise said the Utah board denied the order on the lack of evidence of an oil deposit and without a producing well being in place.

The decision does not prevent Valkor from drilling the four pilot wells already granted by the Utah board in December 2022, Quadrise said, while noting pilot well drilling will be necessary to support a further application for unitisation in ‘due course’.

Quadrise said it is now working with Valkor to ‘assess and clarify any impact’ on the conditional site license and supply agreement for Quadrise’s emulsion fuel technology, which was announced in mid-June.

A further announcement will be made ‘as soon as practicable’, Quadrise said.

Shares in Quadrise were down 17% to 0.90 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday last week, Quadrise provided an update on its fuel trial in Morocco, in which it said combustion at 100% unit load was achieved, but that it was not possible to complete the test at full load due to a progressive decline in fuel pump performance.

Quadrise said the pump was replaced with an identical spare unit this week, but similar performance issues were experienced at full load, indicating a design issue with the pump units at high pressure.

A replacement pump with an alternative design is being sent to Morocco for installation later this month, Quadrise said at the time, with the trial now expected to be completed in early September.

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