Contract Signed Between Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation and Canada's Suncor Energy for Evaluation Run of Microwave Separation Technology System.

Business/Energy Editors

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2000

Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation (IPRC) (OTCBB:IREC) announces a contract with Suncor Energy Inc. to test the efficiency of its Microwave Separation Technology (MST) on the oil sands at its Fort McMurray, Alberta, site. If successful, this project is expected to generate a significant order for multiple MST units for IPRC.

Suncor Energy has assets over CDN $5.1 billion and is in the midst of its biggest growth project to date, Project Millennium. According to Suncor personnel, this project is designed to expand the company's oil sands mining and processing production capacity to 225,000 barrels of oil per day in the year 2002, more than doubling its 1999 production. The company projects a production of 260,000 barrels per day for 2004, growing to over 400,000 barrels per day by the end of the decade.

IPRC president and CEO, Bill Chalmers, stated today that, "IPRC is excited about working with Suncor. The opportunity to test our technology at Suncor is just what we need to show the world how our MST System can cost effectively provide a solution to emulsion problems. There are unlimited possibilities in Canada that could help IPRC grow exponentially over the next year."

Western Canada is experiencing a huge boom in the oil industry. In addition to Suncor Energy, Syncrude Canada Ltd, the nation's largest single source of crude oil and the world's largest producer of crude oil from oil sands, plans to spend approximately $512 million in the near future for ongoing work on their projects. Also, Shell Canada Limited, Chevron Canada Resources and Western Oil Sands Inc. are in the midst of construction and expansion on the Muskeg River Mine and Scotford Upgrader. Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation is in discussions with several of these companies regarding the placement of its MST System.

IPRC owns a patented high tech microwave process for oil emulsion separation. This innovative oil recovery system has a multitude of uses in the petroleum industry to allow drillers, refiners, and others to increase profitability. The state-of-the-art MST units are enhanced with the latest automated, computer-controlled systems available.

Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation has a long-term joint marketing agreement with ExxonMobil, which improved IPRC's capacity to market to the refining and oilfield sectors and provided a significant cash infusion. Additional financing along with strategic alliances with worldwide marketing, manufacturing and technology development partners will advance IPRC's penetration into multiple petroleum industry applications.

Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation (IPRC) is a publicly held company currently traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the stock symbol IREC. To learn more about IPRC, you can visit the company's Web site at www.iprc.com.

Certain of these statements in this news release are forward-looking statements. While these statements reflect the company's beliefs, they are subject to uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially.