Jul 2 2012
US Seismic Systems, Inc., an Acorn Energy, Inc. company announced today it has built and shipped the world's largest commercial high temperature down-hole fiber-optic seismic array. The 40-level array is designed for monitoring wells that use the latest unconventional oil and gas extraction technique known as hydrofracking.
"We believe that our new fiber-optic technology, which provides substantially higher performance with an 80-90% reduction in cost as compared to the legacy monitoring systems, will enable operators to cost-effectively monitor 100% of their frac jobs, leading to significant reductions in environmental impact as well as improvements in extraction efficiency," stated Jim Andersen, CEO of US Seismic Systems. "In addition, our system is designed to operate in the higher temperature shale plays such as Eagleford and Haynesville where the legacy digital electronic systems have been known to have problems."
The system, valued at over $700,000, will be used by a large oilfield service company to monitor stimulations in a high temperature unconventional oil and gas field in Texas.
"We are extremely pleased that Jim and his team have achieved the important milestone of shipping their first commercial system by the end of the first half of 2012, as per their plan. We are very impressed by the quality of innovation at the Company as well as the pipeline of customer interest in US Seismic's products. Acorn's Board has agreed to invest an additional $5 million for working capital and to support manufacturing scale-up and inventory build to assure quick turnaround for anticipated new and follow on orders. This latest capital will increase our total investment in US Seismic to over $16 Million," stated John A. Moore, CEO of Acorn Energy.
About US Seismic Systems, Inc.
US Seismic Systems Inc. ("USSI"), designs, integrates, manufactures, and sells fiber optic sensing systems and solutions for the Energy and Defense markets. USSI utilizes all-optical fiber sensing technology for its state-of-the-art sensors. USSI's proprietary optical fiber and electronics combine to form the sensor system. It is designed to replace the legacy electronic-based sensor systems at a lower cost and with improved performance and reliability. For more information visit the USSI website www.us-si.com
About Acorn Energy, Inc.
Acorn Energy, Inc. is a holding company focused on making energy better by providing digital solutions for energy infrastructure asset management. The four businesses in which we have controlling interests, improve the world's energy infrastructure by making it: more secure - providing security solutions for underwater energy infrastructure (DSIT); more reliable - providing condition-based monitoring to critical assets on the electric grid (GridSense, OmniMetrix) and more productive and efficient - increasing oil and gas production while lowering costs through use of permanent ultra-high sensitive seismic tools that allow for a more precise picture of reservoirs (US Seismic). For more information visit: http://www.acornenergy.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. There is no assurance that Acorn Energy, Inc. or its operating companies will continue to grow their respective businesses, or that any of them will meet the expectations or execute the initiatives described or referred to above. A complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties which may affect Acorn Energy's business generally and the businesses of its subsidiaries is included in "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its 2012 First Quarter 10-Q as filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Investor & Press Contact:
Paul G. Henning
Cameron Associates
(212) 554-5462
[email protected]
Company Contact:
Jim Andersen, President
US Seismic Systems Inc.
(818) 446-2513
[email protected]