TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 08/23/10 -- 3P International Energy Corp., (the "Corporation" or "3P") (TSX VENTURE: DOH) is pleased to announce its new management team, now ready to drive forward development of its recently acquired energy assets in the Ukraine, as well as continue to evaluate accretive opportunities that meet the Corporation's stated criteria.
Dr. David Kahn, incoming Chairman and CEO stated "We are extremely pleased to have assembled such an experienced and capable team to begin building 3P. The level of collective technical, financial and country specific knowledge and know-how of our team will prove paramount in our success going forward."
Quinton Rafuse, incoming President and COO commented "After a thorough review of the project and licenses, we are excited about beginning to immediately and aggressively move forward in proving our commercial concept and building shareholder value through production and reserve growth."
NEW MANAGEMENT TEAM
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. David Kahn - Dr. David S. Kahn has in excess of 19 years of experience in the oil and gas industry having served in senior roles for Halliburton Energy Services, Baker Hughes and Weatherford PPG. From 1998 to present, he has pursued actively the commercialization of various unconventional assets both in the Lower 48 and internationally. His accomplishments include being a principal of Ensyn Petroleum which was sold to Ivanhoe Energy, a large heavy oil project (6+ Billion Original Oil In Place -- OOIP) in West Texas (San Miguel reservoir) that was later sold to Pearl Exploration & Production, a new independent USA heavy oil company Megawest Energy with in excess of 3 B OOIP and Gastem, a 5+ Trillion Cubic Feet in situ shale gas company in Quebec. He graduated from with a PhD of Engineering from Ecole nationale superieure du petrole et des moteurs (now IFP School) (Paris).
President and Chief Operating Officer
Quinton Rafuse - Mr. Rafuse is a geologist with over ten years of experience in the oil and gas industry in various technical and leadership roles. Most recently, he held the position of Vice-President Geoscience for Ember Resources Inc., a junior resource play company with assets in Western Canada. During his time with Ember, the company's coalbed methane (CBM) production increased to 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from 300 boepd. Prior to, he worked as a geologist at Thunder Energy Inc. and EnCana Corporation. The bulk of his experience has been unconventional gas-coalbed methane (CBM), shale gas and tight sand-from new basin exploration to large-scale, resource play development. Mr. Rafuse holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Calgary. He is a professional geologist registered with the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA).
Chief Financial Officer
Wally Rudensky - Mr. Rudensky, CA, has over 25 years experience in public accounting as partner at EvansMartin LLP Chartered Accountants in Toronto and previously with Arthur Andersen (now Deloitte). He is President of DFF Management Inc., a private company providing financial management and governance services to Canadian and U.S. listed companies. He has extensive experience in taxation and finance with particular attention to corporate reorganizations in the domestic and international markets.
Country Manager
Dr. Yuriy Koltun - Dr. Koltun was born in Lviv, Ukraine in 1955. In 1977 he graduated from the geological department of Lviv University. In 1977-1978, Dr. Koltun was an engineer-geologist of the Ukrainian Scientific-Research Geological-Prospecting Institute. There, Dr. Koltun worked on evaluation of reservoir properties of the rocks from the Ukrainian oil and gas provinces. From 1978 to present, Dr. Koltun has served as Engineer, junior scientist, senior scientist of the Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of Combustible Minerals of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. During the first years he worked on investigation of geology of the Lviv-Volyn Coal Basin (Western Ukraine). Then the Carpathians and their foreland became the main area of Dr. Koltun's study. Results of his geochemical investigations of organic-rich strata combined with paleooceanological, lithological and tectonic research allowed Dr. Koltun to study the evolution of the Carpathian region (including Polish, Ukrainian and Romanian Carpathians), in particular the processes of generation and accumulation of hydrocarbons, and to identify petroleum systems in the area under study. In 1990 obtained Ph.D. degree in geology. He has also worked with Eurogas Inc. since 1998.
ADVISORY BOARD APPOINTMENTS
The Corporation is pleased to also announce the following appointments to 3P's Advisory Board:
Richard Wadsworth - Mr. Wadsworth is President and CEO of Sonoro Energy Limited, an energy technology company focused on oil resources within middle east and internationally where it believes it can leverage its PetroSonic heavy oil upgrading process and other technologies. He was Co-founder, President and COO of Bankers Petroleum Ltd., an oil and gas exploration, development and production company listed on the TSX and AIM, from its inception in 2004 until August 2008. During this period he led Bankers in developing a heavy oil project in Albania growing production from 600 to over 6,000 barrels of oil per day and a market capitalization of over $1 billion. During this period Bankers also acquired and built its core U.S. unconventional gas assets leading to Bankers splitting out BNK Petroleum Ltd. with an initial market valuation of $150 million in July 2008. He also serves as Chairman of Gallic Energy, a junior public company based in Calgary, Canada with assets in France, and Australia. Mr. Wadsworth holds a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Calgary is a professional engineer registered with APEGGA.
Dr. Jim Bown - Dr. Jim Bown is the owner and General Director of The Deane Group (Ukraine), which is a Ukrainian company established in June 2000. He has extensive experience in the global energy industry, having worked for more than 25 years with British Petroleum (BP) in the international oil and gas sector. During this time he gained extensive operational experience with BP's major oil and gas projects. He was involved for 4 years in BP's business development activities in Azerbaijan (1993-97) during which the first of the major Caspian Sea oil production sharing contracts was signed with the Azeri Government. Following this in April 1997 he moved from Baku to establish BP's new corporate offices in Kyiv and to become the BP Group Chief Representative in Ukraine. From 1997 to 2000 he was involved in the development and implementation of BP's upstream oil and gas investment strategy for Ukraine, the principal focus of which was the exploration and development of potentially very large on-shore natural gas resources in Ukraine's Dnipro-Donets Basin. He retired from BP in March 2000 to establish The Deane Group (Ukraine), his energy industry consultancy business located in Kyiv where he is now resident. He helped to establish and was the first foreign co-chairman of the Oil and Gas Working Group of the President's Foreign Investment Advisory Council (FIAC) in Ukraine. He is also Honorary Secretary of the Ukraine Association of Independent Oil and Gas Producers (UAIOGP). He is a member of the Board of Directors of Ukraine's International Centre for Policy Studies and he is currently serving as Chairman of the British-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce. He has a Doctorate in Engineering Science (Manchester, UK) and he is a Chartered Engineer (UK). He is a Professional Member of the British Chartered Management Institute and a Professional Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (UK). He is also a Fellow and Past-President of the Institute of Corrosion (UK).
Zenon Potoczny - Zenon Potoczny, born and raised in Ukraine, has extensive experience both in the oil and gas industry and working internationally. Mr. Potoczny served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Shelton Canada Corp. since the company's listing on the TSX Venture Exchange in 1996. Mr. Potoczny was also Managing Director of Shelton Corporation Limited, an Ontario-based producer and supplier of oil and oil byproducts, and a Director of Innovotech Inc. a TSX Venture-listed company. Mr. Potoczny currently serves as president of Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Potoczny holds an MSc in Engineering and an MBA from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Ake Almgren - Dr Ake Almgren, is currently the President of International Battery Inc., and Oraks Energy Endurance Inc., a company which he founded in 2003. Previously Dr Almgren was since 1998 President & CEO of Capstone Turbine Corporation, which is the world's premier developer and manufacturer of microturbine systems. Prior to Capstone, Dr Almgren spent an accomplished 26 year career at ABB, a worldwide power solutions company. While there, he served as President of various business entities, including Business Area manager Distribution Transformers (with 36 plants in 28 countries), ABB Power T&D Co, Inc., ABB Power Distribution and ABB Power Systems. In these capacities he led operations ranging from high volume commodity products to advanced engineered system solutions with a worldwide presence. Before relocating to the U.S. in 1991, Dr Almgren was President of Autoliv. Under his leadership, the automotive restraint systems company established a North America presence and also expanded into new products such as airbags. Dr Almgren holds a PhD in Engineering from Sweden's Linkopings Tekniska Hogskola and a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology.
Dr. David Sindall - Dr. Sindall presently serves in a variety of management roles for E21 Corporation, patent owner of scandium technology, as well as Zeroloft Aerogels. Previously, Dr. Sindall was President of MAST Technologies in Moscow, a maker of scandium and rare earth materials, including a DAP plant and an MAP plant. Prior, Dr. Sindall was a principal of AECL where we was responsible for developing a joint Canadian - Russian program for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Between 1993-1997 Dr. Sindall headed Mitsui's petrochemical division in Moscow and was responsible for the first tolling agreements between Russia and the Ukraine and throughout the CIS countries for chemical commodities. David has also been the founder of Ventspils Ports, Latvia, where he was actively involved in the shipment of large quantities of Urea Ammonium Nitrate and managed construction of a large trans-shipment port facility for liquid chemicals, lube oil, and ethyl alcohol. Dr. Sindall has been a consultant to the Director of Revenue Services, Russia, as well as the Russian Minister of Petrochemical Industries, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, and the Russian Secretary of State. Dr. Sindall has a degree in Nuclear Physics from the University of Toronto, and an honorary PHD from the St. Petersburg Academia of Science.
Other Matters
As part of their compensation, the board, management and Advisory Board appointees were granted options to purchase an aggregate 640,000 common shares of 3P at an exercise price of $0.31 per share for a five-year term, subject to earlier termination 30 days after the later of termination of their agreement or ceasing to be a service provider to 3P.
Mr. Kehmeier will be stepping down as President, as well as from the board of directors. The board wishes to thank Mr. Kehmeier for his invaluable stewardship in helping to guide the company over the last 2 years. Jason Reid is also stepping down as CFO and we thank him for his contributions.
The board of directors now consists of: Paul DesLauriers, Sanjay Joshi and Dr. David Kahn (Chairman).
Management now consists of: Dr. David Kahn (CEO), Quinton Rafuse (President and COO), Wally Rudensky (CFO) and Dr. Yuriy Koltun (Country Manager).
Website
The company is in the process of completing its corporate website to keep investors informed and up-to-date. Its launch will be announced in the coming weeks.
About 3P International Energy Corp.
3P International Energy Corp. is actively seeking international energy opportunities which meet its business model criteria of discovered but undeveloped known shallow reserves in politically and business friendly climates, which can be exploited using conventional and unconventional drilling, completion and reservoir technologies.
Forward-Looking Information
This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimates of future events. All statements that address future activities, events or developments that the Corporation believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur are forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based upon assumptions by management that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties beyond the Corporation's control. There can be no assurance that outcomes anticipated in the forward-looking information will occur and actual results may differ materially for a variety of reasons. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Corporation undertakes no obligations to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking information, except as may be required by law. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to the Corporation's filings with the Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
GMFB Communications
Adam Chambers
(416) 907-9422
achambers@gmfbcommunications.ca
