2006-2007

News Release

REF NO.: 159

SUBJECT: Husky Energy continues to support Husky Energy Chair in Oil and Gas Research at Memorial University

DATE: April 24, 2007

Today Dr. John C.S. Lau, president and chief executive officer of Husky Energy, joined President Axel Meisen of Memorial University to announce details of further support for the university’s Husky Energy Chair in Oil and Gas Research. In June 2003, Husky Energy donated $2 million to create an endowment to establish the Husky Energy Chair in Oil and Gas Research, the first endowed research chair at Memorial University. In today’s announcement Husky Energy committed to contribute a further $500,000 to the chair’s endowment.
            "The advancement of education and research is a key objective of Husky's community investment strategy, and we are pleased to once again partner with Memorial University as it supports the ever-changing needs of offshore exploration and production," said Dr. Lau. "This additional funding for a senior research chair demonstrates our continued commitment to advancing reservoir characterization capability in the region, as well as the East Coast's position as a core growth area for Husky Energy."
            “The Husky Energy Chair in Oil and Gas Research has been a significant resource for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador’s global oil and gas industry. It has also helped Memorial become an international centre relating to oil and gas research and teaching,” said Dr. Meisen. “We are excited to see the results this additional funding will surely bring about and are grateful to Husky Energy for their vision in developing this chair and their continuing to support of this important research.”
            Dr. R. Phillip Bording is the holder of the Husky Energy Chair. “The real challenge of raising grant money is finding suitable industrial matching funds and this endowment increase will greatly help me and the future Husky Energy Chairs in that process. I am most grateful to Dr. John Lau for this contribution,” said Dr. Bording. “The funding increase from Husky Energy to the endowment will provide a continuous independent source of funds to the chair for research programs and graduate students. These new funds and the other grants we have been able to leverage will allow the research group to grow in size by another eight individuals within the next year.
            Since his appointment at Memorial University in October 2004, Dr. Bording has received five grants totaling $4.1 million, including a $3 million Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) Atlantic Innovation Fund and a $900,000 awarded from Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada. IBM has contributed over $250,000 in funds, computer equipment and computer services. These grants are now funding 10 graduate students, several co-op and undergraduate students, and a postdoctoral fellow. The Pan-Atlantic Petroleum Systems Consortium has contributed over $80,000 to fund two additional graduate students. Their research supports Dr. Bording’s efforts in seismic modelling and inversion.
            Dr. Bording's research interests include seismic processing algorithms for reservoir characterization, seismic modelling and migration, inverse methods for parameter estimation and joint inversion of data, application specific computing for seismic algorithms and visualization of seismic processes. He has also authored and co-authored a number of publications including: Seismic Modelling and Imaging with the Complete Wave Equation, Seismic Modelling and Earth Imaging, Computational Science Education Project (the pioneering Web e-book) and Applications of Seismic Travel-time Tomography: Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. 
            Prior to accepting his appointment as Husky Energy Chair, Dr. Bording was manager of computational science at the Computer Sciences Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama. Dr. Bording received his MS in computer science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and his PhD from the University of Tulsa. Dr. Bording holds appointments in the Department of Earth Sciences and Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Memorial. 
            Husky Energy is a Canadian-based, integrated energy and energy-related company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Husky Energy is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HSE. Offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, Husky is the operator of the White Rose oil field with a 72.5 per cent working interest, and a partner in the Terra Nova oil field.
           Memorial University is a significant contributor to technological advancement in Atlantic Canada and has programs in place to foster innovation in a variety of industries, including the oil and gas industry. Memorial is the largest university in Atlantic Canada, with about 17,500 students and more than 100 degree programs. Memorial University is also the largest research organization in the province.

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