CALGARY, June 3 /CNW/ - OPTI Canada Inc. (OPTI) today announced that progress continues to be made in the start-up phase of the Long Lake Project. A key milestone was achieved in May 2009 with the completion of the heat addition to the hot lime softeners (HLS) in the water treatment plant. Bitumen production for the month was limited as maintenance work was completed on parts of the SAGD water plant that have been operating for over 18 months. With the implementation of improvements to the HLS and the completion of the SAGD water plant maintenance, steam injection to the wells in the last week in May averaged 95,000 bbl/d. This resulted in average bitumen production volumes of 17,000 bbl/d over the same period. As of May 31, there were 43 wells on production.

Revised and Restated Financial Statements

OPTI also reported today that it has restated its year-end 2008 U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) reconciliation. The purpose of the re-filing is to correct the Company's interpretation of the timing of the commencement of SAGD operations at the Long Lake Project under U.S. GAAP. Previously, the Company's U.S. GAAP financial statements interpreted the start of commercial SAGD operations as concurrent with start-up of the SAGD Pilot in 2006. This interpretation has been amended to reflect the start of commercial SAGD operations as July 1, 2008, the same date as in the Company's Canadian GAAP financial statements. The impact of this restatement is described in note 14 of the financial statements filed on form 40-F/A with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Company's Canadian GAAP financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis were also revised and re-filed to reflect the retroactive adoption of CICA Handbook section 3064 "Goodwill and Intangible Assets", effective January 1, 2009. The impact of the restatement is described in note 2 to the Company's financial statements as filed on SEDAR. These restatements would have been otherwise required in the Company's 2009 year-end filings.

About OPTI

OPTI Canada Inc. is a Calgary, Alberta-based company focused on developing major oil sands projects in Canada using our proprietary OrCrude(TM) process. Our first project, Phase 1 of Long Lake, consists of 72,000 barrels per day of SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) oil production integrated with an upgrading facility. The Upgrader uses the OrCrude(TM) process combined with commercially available hydrocracking and gasification. Through gasification, this configuration substantially reduces the exposure to and the need to purchase natural gas.