Jun. 11, 2009 (Filing Services Canada) -- Tribute Resources Inc. (TRB - TSX Venture), ("Tribute"), a developer of natural gas storage assets in Ontario, announced today that it is in the final stages of preparation of an application to the Ontario Energy Board (the "OEB") to designate the Bayfield and Stanley pools in Huron County, Ontario as natural gas storage reservoirs. It is the intent of Tribute to develop the first two of the Huron County pools (the "Bayfield Pools") with estimated working storage capacity of approximately 7 billion cubic feet ("BCF"), for possible gas injection in April 2012.
Tribute has formed the Huron Bayfield Limited Partnership ("Bayfield LP") and Bayfield Resources Inc. ("Bayfield GP") as investment vehicles for the future development of the Bayfield Pools and potential additional natural gas storage reservoirs in Huron County. Tribute currently owns a 100% interest in both entities. Tribute plans to transfer the natural gas storage and petroleum and natural gas rights for the Bayfield Pools to the Bayfield LP in exchange for units in the Bayfield LP. The funds required to develop the pools will then be raised through a sale of partnership units in the Bayfield LP to third parties. Tribute has sufficient working capital on hand to fund the designation and initial engineering of the Bayfield Pools. However, the construction of storage pools is very capital intensive and Tribute is currently negotiating possible joint ventures with third parties to jointly develop and build the Bayfield Pools.
All further development of the Bayfield Pools will be completed by the Bayfield LP and Tribute will jointly apply to the OEB with the Bayfield LP for designation of the Bayfield Pools, the right to inject and withdraw natural gas from the reservoirs, and a leave to construct a pipeline to connect the pools to the Dawn Trafalgar system at Lobo near London, Ontario. Development of the pools requires the construction of a 70 kilometer pipeline that would tie in directly to the Union Dawn-Trafalgar high-pressure transmission system.
Tribute completed a 3D seismic program to evaluate the Bayfield Pools in 2007 and plans to submit an application for the designation of these two pools to the OEB in July 2009. Tribute completed the drilling of a well and a cap rock core into one of the two reservoirs. Tribute is also conducting an environmental assessment of the pipeline route and has engaged a third party environmental consulting firm to determine a suitable pipeline route and advise on the environmental aspects of the project. The boundaries of both reservoirs have been delineated from geological data and the results of the 2D and 3D seismic programs. Tribute has received the agreement of the Ministry of Natural Resources for these boundaries.
Tribute remains committed to its core strategy of building and holding natural gas storage in Ontario.
