Avalon Receives Paraffin Wax Patent For Enhanced Oil Recovery

Minneapolis MN - Avalon Oil & Gas, Inc., announced to shareholders recently that it received notice that the patent application for its paraffin wax mitigation technology, being marketed as Ultrasonic Mitigation Solutions, has been granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Avalon's innovative Ultrasonic Mitigation Solutions could save the oil and gas industry from losing billions of dollars per year with a cost efficient environmentally friendly method of removing paraffin wax problems in crude oil production.

"The scope of the problem posed by paraffin wax and other heavy organic deposits in crude oil production around the world is massive," commented Kent Rodriguez, President and CEO of Avalon. A report by the Journal of Petroleum Science & Engineering from the University of Illinois estimates the total annual cost of paraffin wax build up in well-bores to be $18B. This represents a substantial potential market for enhanced oil recovery from Avalon's recently patented Ultrasonic Mitigation Solutions.

This enormously expensive problem is caused when wax compounds precipitate out of the crude oil and cause blockages in well-bores, walls of production tubing and surface flow equipment. The deposits of paraffin lead to a fall in production rates of oil from the affected wells. "The estimated return on investment to producers is tremendous, especially when compared to the workover costs of a problem well, which could exceed $1,000,000 per well," added Rodriguez. Paraffin wax deposits in well-bores have resulted in substantial economic losses to oil producers around the world; including sites in North America, China, Mexico, Alaska, the North Sea, the Middle East, North Africa and Venezuela.

Currently available solutions to this problem involve applying an array of chemical solvents to attack deposits and prevent build-up. Chemical solutions alone can create environmental liabilities and issues with disposal. In contrast, Avalon's Ultrasonic Mitigation Solution utilizes ultrasonic waves to break-up current deposits in the production tubing and prevent future formations of the wax molecules in an environmentally safe process. Moreover, with this process, oil producers are saved the cost and operational impact of repeated mechanical pigging operations and costly workovers.

In July 2006, Avalon acquired the exclusive rights to the paraffin wax mitigation technology originally developed by researchers from the University of Wyoming, a noted technical center of expertise for solutions to the paraffin wax build-up. The company recently launched commercialization and partnership programs to support Avalon's Ultrasonic Mitigation Solutions product line.

SOURCE: Avalon Oil & Gas, Inc.,