Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation President and CEO William W. Chalmers, Jr. Announces Strategic Business Plan.

Business/Energy Editors

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2000

Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation (IPRC)(OTCBB:IREC) President and CEO William W. Chalmers, Jr. announces a strategic business plan in three areas of concentration: Microwave Applications for Petroleum Companies; Application Development for Environmental Waste Minimization; and Electromagnetic Wave Stimulation of Oil Reservoirs.

IPRC has embarked upon an aggressive growth strategy. The company has leveraged its efforts to have in place about 18 professionals soliciting business from approximately 40 discrete prospects. IPRC is also promoting its Microwave Separation Technology (MST) in industry publications, at industry conferences and at major engineering firms.

"We are focusing our company in key market segments for rapid growth," stated accomplished-growth executive, Chalmers. "We are solidifying our business plan and hiring additional key staff to help us implement it. We are outsourcing functions that are not core to our capabilities to allow us to focus on what we do best. For example we have contracted with Administaff to handle our Human Resources and Benefits Programs. Another critical element impacting IPRC's future growth," Chalmers added, "is that shareholders will see much more involvement of our ExxonMobil partner now that the distraction of merging the firms is behind them."

Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation's core business of integrated petroleum applications is readily accessible with its existing technology or via straightforward modifications of existing equipment. The focus within the integrated petroleum arena is on worldwide refineries and Canadian Oil Sands. There are about 700 refineries worldwide. Initial focus will be on heavy crude oil users in the U.S. The commercial MST unit in Torrance, Calif., is continuing to operate effectively and is a valuable sales tool to give potential clients a practicing illustration of our patented technology. In Canada, IPRC is working on Oil Sands projects to demonstrate its value. Sales projections are for at least 20 MST-1000 equivalent units over the next two years primarily from these market segments.

IPRC's wholly owned subsidiary, Petrowave, was established to handle the design, engineering, manufacture, installation and field technical service for MST Systems. The company has now evolved to a point that it is entering into a strategic relationship with a large manufacturing firm that can handle even its largest success scenario.

The company is also forming Waste Minimization, Incorporated (WMI) as a wholly owned subsidiary to focus on reducing the volumes of hydrocarbons in liquid waste sites in collaboration with other remediation firms. Further business, technical and regulatory developments are needed to profitably participate in this arena, so WMI is characterized as being in the "developmental" stage.

"DeepWave" is the organizational element in the exploratory stage of business development as well. IPRC is now framing a strategy and experimental plan to bring ideas related to reservoir stimulation to a decision point regarding future commercialization. A San Joaquin Valley driller has agreed to partner with the company in developing down hole applications.

The board of directors of Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation will shortly be asked to approve the adoption of two new programs; a stock repurchase program and an employee stock option plan. The stock purchase program will be significantly and immediately accretive to its earnings per share by reducing shares outstanding. The stock repurchase program will acquire shares on the open market and in privately negotiated transactions. The repurchased common shares will be added to the company's treasury shares and may be used for employee benefit and stock option programs.

"We continue to believe that Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation stock represents excellent long-term value," added new IPRC CEO, William W. Chalmers, Jr. "The demand for Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation's services continues to promise strong growth and our operating performance is on a steep curve of improvement. We will seek the authorization of the board of directors for the stock repurchase program."

"Currently, we feel that the stock is significantly undervalued and represents an excellent value for our shareholders. The stock's current price makes repurchasing an attractive way to increase shareholder value," Chalmers further stated. "We plan to achieve profitability within one year, become cash self-sufficient within two years, and grow at 200+% per annum for the next three years by implementing this plan. Share prices should respond very positively to that performance."

IPRC utilizes its patented high tech microwave process for oil emulsion separation. This innovative oil recovery approach has a multitude of uses to increase profitability in the petroleum industry. The state-of-the-art MST units are equipped with advanced computer process control systems that minimize the need for operator interaction.

Imperial Petroleum Recovery Corporation (IPRC) is a publicly held company 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.