(QFI.L) Quadrise Fuels International PLC Buy/Sell

RNS Number : 1175I Quadrise Fuels International PLC 05 March 2010

Quadrise Fuels International plc ("QFI" or "the Company")

Agreement with A.P. Moller-Maersk for MSAR® Marine Bunker Fuel

5 March 2010

Quadrise Fuels International plc ("QFI" or "the Company"), the producer of oil-in-water emulsion fuel as a low cost substitute for heavy fuel oil for use in power plants and industrial diesel engines, advises that it has signed a Joint Development Agreement with A.P. Moller - Maersk ("Maersk") to jointly investigate and develop over an approximate 12 month period a marine version of its MSAR® emulsion fuel. Maersk are the world's largest container shipping organisation and the largest single purchaser of bunker fuel.

The development programme will capitalise on QFI's skills in emulsion fuel application and use in large diesel engines. Maersk will contribute their vast shipping industry experience and provide unsurpassed technical expertise relating to naval architecture, machinery systems, fuels, exhaust gas emissions and technical ship management. Maersk vessels provide excellent testing platforms for new technologies.

In the event the development programme is successful Maersk and QFI will seek to expediently implement the technology.

Commenting on the development Bill Howe, Chief Executive Officer of QFI said:

"This co-operative development is a very exciting opportunity for QFI. The diesel engine application of MSAR® represents a market sector with limited inter-fuels competition. Bunker fuel, driven by expansion in international trade, is a long-term growth market and comprises 150 million tons per annum, approximately 30% of the global heavy fuel oil market. Bunker fuel represents a high proportion of shipping industry operating costs and there is great potential for MSAR® if the technology can be successfully adapted to the marine application".

QFI will announce its interim results for the half year ended 31st December 2009 on 29th March 2010.

Enquiries:

Quadrise Fuels International plc Tel: +44 (0)772 537 2841

Bill Howe, Chief Executive Officer

Fairfax I.S. PLC Tel: +44 (0)207 598 4073

Katy Birkin

Capital MS&L Tel: +44 (0)207 307 5330

Penny Freer

This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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By Yaw Yan Chong and Luke Pachymuthu

SINGAPORE/DUBAI, Jan 15 (Reuters) - European trader Arcadia Petroleum has agreed to buy U.S.-based Masefield Group to expand its business to North America and extend further in Africa, five sources close to the matter said.
The $20-$30 million deal will give Arcadia, which operates as a conventional trading house, access to the niche market of structured financing for the energy sector, particularly in the United States, Canada and South Africa, where Masefield has a strong presence.
The takeover will also allow the trader to leverage Masefield's risk management expertise.
When contacted, spokesmen from both firms declined to comment. It was not immediately clear when the deal will be completed.
With the strong shipping support that Arcadia has from its parent company, its business now stretches from upstream activities, trade financing, risk management and trading logistics to the power sector.

"Arcadia is your typical trading house while Masefield is stronger in off-trading activities like arranging and providing structured financing to customers, especially in North America and South Africa, although they do trade as well," one source said.
"They (Masefield) also have some crude supply deals in South Africa and it seems that the thinking behind the acquisition is that there is good synergy between the companies in the areas that they are strong in."
The sources said staff at Arcadia, which has been in expansion mode since two years ago when it started fuel oil and distillates trading in Singapore, had been informed of the acquisition about a month ago.
The move comes on the back of recent takeover activities in the energy sector, such as PetroChina's acquisition of Singapore Petroleum Co (SPC) and Glencore's agreement to buy a 51 percent stake in Singapore-listed Chemoil.
Arcadia was formed in 1988 as a unit of Japan's Mitsui & Co, which then sold its entire stake to Cyprus-based Farahead Holdings in 2005, which owns two shipping companies transporting oil and liquefied natural gas, as well as an offshore drilling fleet.
Parent firm Farahead provides integrated logistical support to Arcadia's oil trading businesses.
Arcadia made its name trading crude and currently trades across the barrel from crude to all oil products mainly in Europe, West Africa and Asia.
The company trades more than 800,000 barrels of physical crude and more than 10 million barrels of oil futures and options contracts each day, its official website shows, similar to the output of OPEC member Qatar.
Arcadia is regarded as a medium-sized trading house, similar to companies such as Mercuria, Sempra and Hetco, but lags big players such as Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura.
Farahead's other units include the world's largest independent oil tanker companies, Frontline, Golar LNG Ltd and SeaDrill Ltd.
Masefield, which also has supply deals for crude and oil products, provides risk management services to clients. Masefield has a 20 percent stake in International Energy Group (IEG), which in turn has stakes in three other oil-related companies.
Two of these -- London-listed Nautical Petroleum and Africa-based Wilton Petroleum -- are oil exploration firms.
Wilton is focused on heavy utility fuel with sister company, Quadrise Fuels International, which produces Multiphase Superfine Atomised Residue (MSAR) that is extracted directly from the ground in Venezuela and can be used for power generation.
IEG also has stakes in the Strategic Energy Bank, which provides cover to governments in case of supply disruptions to their reserves.

(Editing by Ramthan Hussain)

((yanchong.yaw@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3851; Reuters Messaging: yanchong.yaw.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: ARCADIA MASEFIELD/TAKEOVER (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

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Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.

SINGAPORE/DUBAI, Jan 15 (Reuters) - European trader Arcadia Petroleum has agreed to buy U.S.-based Masefield Group to expand its business to North America and extend further in Africa, five sources close to the matter said on Thursday.
The $20-$30 million deal will give Arcadia, which operates as a conventional trading house, access into the niche market of structured financing for the energy sector, particularly in the United States, Canada and South Africa, where Masefield has a strong presence.
When contacted, spokesmen from both firms declined comment. It was not immediately clear when the deal will complete.
The takeover will also allow the trader to leverage Masefield's risk management expertise.
With the strong shipping support that Arcadia has from its parent company, its business now stretches from upstream activities, trade financing, risk management, trading logistics to the power sector.

"Arcadia is your typical trading house while Masefield is stronger in off-trading activities like arranging and providing structured financing to customers, especially in North America and South Africa, although they do trade as well," one source said.
"They (Masefield) also have some crude supply deals in South Africa and it seems that the thinking behind the acquisition is that there is good synergy between the companies in the areas that they are strong in."

(Reporting by Yaw Yan Chong and Luke Pachymuthu; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)

((yanchong.yaw@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3851; Reuters Messaging: yanchong.yaw.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: ARCADIA MASEFIELD/TAKEOVER (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.

RNS Number : 9203D Quadrise Fuels International PLC 10 December 2009

10 December 2009

Quadrise Fuels International plc

Result of Annual General Meeting and CEO Statement

Quadrise Fuels International plc ("QFI" or "the Company"), the producer of emulsion fuel as a low cost substitute for heavy fuel oil for use in power plants and industrial diesel engines, advises that at its Annual General Meeting held on 10th December 2009, all resolutions were duly passed.

Details of the proxy votes received for the meeting will be available on the Company's website shortly.

At the Annual General Meeting, Bill Howe, Chief Executive made the following statement:

"Since listing the business on AIM in April 2006, the Company has developed a business strategy to accommodate an energy price environment typified by a rising oil price, and its impact on consumers of heavy fuel oil.

A three phase strategy was developed which focused on an initial demonstration of the technology in facilities equipped to handle combustion of emulsion fuels whilst meeting strict environmental standards (Phase 1). QFI's prime targets in this regard were former consumers of Orimulsion who had previously made the minor modifications to their plants to facilitate the use of emulsions and who had installed flue gas desulphurisation facilities.

Phase 2 of the strategy was to parachute the technology, once proven and demonstrated, into growth markets which were receptive to ongoing use of oil as a power generation fuel. These markets were identified through our research as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Mexico.

Phase 3 envisaged application of the technology in diesel engine power generation and ships diesel engines.

The Lithuanian project, subject of various previous press releases and operational updates, represented the first opportunity to demonstrate the technology on a large-scale and with all the commercial and contractual ramifications associated with establishing QFI's long term business. Over 20 000 tonnes of MSAR emulsion fuel was successfully manufactured and combusted in the 2008 commercial demonstration, and such was the acceptance of the trial outcome that MSAR was awarded the gold medal for Lithuanian Product of the Year by the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists.

The reduction, in the past 12 months, in the spread between light and heavy petroleum product fractions to historically abnormal levels has however impacted MSAR economics. Efforts to convert this major success into a long term contract continue under review, but are, as we announced on 7 December, temporarily on hold pending a return to normality in the oil markets.

The significant success of the Lithuania commercial trial has nevertheless had a very positive impact on our dealings with other major potential clients. In particular it has provided momentum to our Phase 2 and Phase 3 activities, which in terms of the long term future of the Company are far more material than the Lithuanian project.

Our progress in Saudi Arabia continues to be very encouraging. These clients are taking a forward view as to the merits of the technology and basing their evaluations on long term expectations of conditions likely to prevail in the oil markets. Saudi Arabia has a large installed oil-fired power asset base (over 8000MWe) and is a growth economy, currently adding 2000MWe additional power generating capacity each year. It is a highly prospective territory for QFI.

Emulsion fuels are commercially proven in the land based diesel power generation market. In Guatemala, the 150MWe Planta Arizona plant has aggregated over 150 000 operating hours on Orimulsion. For the future we envisage establishing MSAR manufacturing hubs to cover regional markets with high concentrations of diesel power.

The marine diesel market has unusual requirements, not the least being the issue of supply chain logistics for a new fuel. Initial interactions with major counter-parties in this sector provides us encouragement that the technical and logistical hurdles can be overcome however. A further positive is associated with new environmental regulations in respect of marine sulphur emissions. To meet these new regulations will require dozens of the world's oil refiners to install very expensive upgrading equipment with an attendant increase in CO2 emissions, and a substantial increase in the cost of bunker fuel. MSAR, coupled with on board flue gas scrubbing, represents a solution which will be cheaper than both current bunker fuel and the new distillate fuels to be produced by refiners. There thus exists a strong motivation for the marine sector to explore the use of MSAR.

Both the Saudi Arabia and marine diesel markets are moving forward at a pace exceeding our earlier expectations. We anticipate reporting further progress on these prospects during the first quarter of 2010."

Enquiries:

Quadrise Fuels International plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7550 4930
Bill Howe, Chief Executive Officer www.quadrisefuels.com
Fairfax I.S. plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7598 5368

Jeremy Porter

Capital MS&L Tel: +44 (0)20 7307 5330

James Madsen

This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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