Announcements

Company’s new business unit to aggressively market its high-flow, chemical-free frack water cleanup technology

Los Angeles, California – July 19, 2012 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTCBB: OOIL), developer of the high-speed way to harvest algae and clean up frack water, announced today the formation of a dedicated business unit to aggressively market its continuous-flow, high efficiency and chemical-free technology for frack water cleanup and petroleum recovery. The company has named Dr. R. Gerald Bailey, former President of Exxon (NYSE:XOM), Arabian Gulf, Abu Dhabi and UAE, as Industry Advisor to this unit, while veteran former Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW) manager Bill Charneski will head the unit as its General Manager.

“We are delighted that Dr. Bailey has agreed to join us as industry advisor,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO. “He brings a vast network of relationships and credibility to our venture. As General Manager with P&L responsibility, Bill Charneski will focus on achieving rapid technical and commercial milestones. I’m confident this team will quickly get us commercial success in this fast-moving sector.”

“I was able recently to observe OriginOil’s lab-scale frac flowback water treatment process,” said Dr. Bailey. “The process is quite an achievement and has so much potential. I am looking forward to helping get this process into wide use in the oil and gas industry as a highly portable, high-flow and chemical-free way to maximize oil recovery and re-use the huge amounts of water used in oil exploration today.”

(Photos: In June, Dr. Bailey reviewed OriginOil’s frac flowback recovery and reuse process.)

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, is one of the most transformative technologies of today’s economy. It allows the energy industry to cost-effectively access deep underground oil and gas reserves to power an energy-hungry world. The dark side of this revolution is that vast amounts of water are continuously used, extracted and contaminated in fracking and production processes.

According to Global Water Intelligence, “the oil industry produces around 2.5 times more water than oil. By 2025 it will be producing five times more water than oil. Handling produced water is a tremendous growth market, but the real opportunity is in treatment.” With daily world oil production approaching 90 million barrels, this implies a potential market for disposal and treatment  of at least $500 billion because energy companies pay between $3 and $12 to process each barrel of produced water, as reported by Greentech Media.

Bringing decades of experience in the petroleum industry, Dr. Bailey has served in engineering, management, and senior executive positions around the world. As President of Exxon, Arabian Gulf, Abu Dhabi, and UAE, he was responsible for the coordination of all Exxon business interests in the Arabian Gulf. He was a liaison to local governments and served as Director of Abu Dhabi Onshore Oil Company and Exxon Qatar. Prior to that, he served as Assistant General Manager at Abu Dhabi Onshore Oil Company, Operations Manager of Qatar General Petroleum Corp., and Operations Superintendent at Exxon Lago Oil in Aruba.

Dr. Bailey holds a PhD in chemical engineering and is a graduate of the University of Houston. He regularly publishes and presents on both the science and business of oil and gas. Currently, he is Chairman of Bailey Petroleum LLC, a petroleum business development consulting firm and serves at the executive and board levels with several energy industry companies. He serves as CEO of MCW Energy, Inc., a publicly traded petroleum transport and oil sands development company which is currently listed on the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol MW4 and undergoing a dual-listing process on the TSX.V Exchange.

Bill Charneski spearheaded the development of the oil and gas cleanup application of OriginOil’s proprietary dewatering technology. His long career as a chemical process engineer, plant supervisor and regional sales manager for Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW) uniquely qualifies him to head the new division. In his previous work, Charneski gained extensive experience with process development and industrial equipment design and manufacturing, as well as a range of cross-functional knowledge and skills regarding marketing, sales, finance, operations, project management, team building, and quality control systems in an industrial environment.