Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. has entered into an agreement to purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of early stage oil sands company Excelsior Energy Ltd. for C$144 million with an attributed value to Excelsior’s oil sands assets and proprietary technology of roughly C$89 million.

Sveinung Svarte, president and CEO of AOSC said, “The addition of Excelsior’s high quality assets to those of AOSC at Hangingstone is in line with the strategy we have presented to our investors and creates a world-class, stand-alone project.”

Key attributes of Excelsior include:
• Contingent resources of about 183 million bbl (Estimate of contingent resources for Hangingstone from McDaniel & Associates as at Dec. 31, 2009; for West Surmont, from McDaniel & Associates report as at Dec. 31, 2008).
• Net cash of roughly C$25 million (prior to exercise of any Excelsior stock options or Excelsior warrants).
• About 26,607 net undeveloped acres of land on two contiguous blocks in the Hangingstone and West Surmont areas of the Athabasca oil sands region.
• Operatorship, with high working interests of 75% at Hangingstone and 64.3% at West Surmont.
• Patent for the combustion overhead gravity drainage (COGD) proprietary technology; project approval for a 1,000 b/d experimental pilot is expected in the latter half of 2010 with subsequent implementation and commissioning in early 2011.

Once the transaction is complete, AOSC estimates it will have 113,007 net undeveloped acres of land in the Hangingstone area.

GMP Securities Ltd. and Peters & Co. Ltd. acted as exclusive financial advisors to AOSC in the transaction. CIBC World Markets Inc. and Raymond James Ltd acted as exclusive financial advisors to Excelsior in the transaction.