Investing in EST

Our Market
CEO David Prior's recent trip to Norway and China demonstrated that our customer base is worldwide – wherever oil spills occur on waters which are subject to high waves or heavy ice, and also at marine industrial sites. The UAE, which has a large offshore drilling infrastructure, expects to spend $56 billion on environmental projects over the next 10 years – a good indicator of the size of the market.

One version of our technology that Norway's StatoilHydro wants to develop is a VOSS or Vessel of Opportunity Skimming System. These expensive units are placed on oil rigs and towed by any available tug or supply ship in the event of an oil spill. EST will continue to develop such a unit and sell it worldwide. Oil rigs tend to be exposed to rough waters where only the EST system is capable. In the future, oil drilling will increasingly occur in more extreme waters in the Arctic and further offshore worldwide.

Over 100 billion barrels of the world's remaining oil is in the Arctic. In the opinion of Ron MacKay, a Senior Response Officer in the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), EST currently has the only technology with the potential to clean up an oil spill in heavy ice. His opinion was validated during the recent International Oil Spill Conference 2008, the world's largest oil spill trade show. At that show, some of the most knowledgeable experts in the world assessed the EST technology and concluded it was a very good approach. Furthermore, there was no new technology at the show or on the horizon that could handle real Arctic conditions.

No existing technology can recover oil in heavy seas. The CCG believes the EST system will have that ability. Recent sea trials support this belief and the engineers and oil experts in Norway, China and IOSC agree. The only other hopeful technology under development is Europe's Oil Sea Harvester project, or OSH.

This vessel will cost up to €100 million (Euros) to build. The preliminary design work has been completed at a cost of €3.5 million. This OSH vessel will not be able to operate in heavy ice or extreme cold. A vessel utilizing EST technology could outperform it for 30% of the price. Currently, the Stril Poseidon can handle the highest waves (3m). This vessel cost C$75 million. A version using EST technology would cost 50% less.

Green technology: portfolio for the future
As with recent upward trends in the investment earnings potential of alternative energy technologies like wind, wave, and solar power, environmental cleanup technologies also show rapidly expanding promise as investment vehicles. While EST is not a publicly traded symbol at present, anyone interested in investing in the company on a privately negotiated basis is invited to contact David Prior directly c/o david.prior@spilltechnology.com.