Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. Announcement of results for the fourth quarter and the year ended December 31, 2012

HONG KONG, March 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. ("Sunshine") (HKEX: 2012; TSX: SUO) today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2012. The Corporation's consolidated financial statements, notes to the consolidated financial statements, Management's Discussion and Analysis and Annual Information Form have been filed on SEDAR (http://www.sedar.com/), with the SEHK at (http://www.hkexnews.hk/) and are available on the Corporation's website (http://www.sunshineoilsands.com/). The Annual Information Form includes the Corporation's reserves and resource data at an effective date of December 31, 2012 as evaluated by GLJ Petroleum Consultants Ltd. and DeGolyer and MacNaughton Canada Limited and prepared in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities. Sunshine's annual general meeting of shareholders will be held on May 7, 2013 in Hong Kong. All figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.

Highlights

• On March 1, 2012, Sunshine completed its IPO and listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "SEHK"), raising approximately $570 million under the listing symbol of "2012".
• Through the IPO, the Corporation secured significant investment from cornerstone investors such as Premium Investment Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Investment Corporation, EIG Management Company and Sinopec Century Bright Capital Investment Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation, otherwise known as the Sinopec Group.
• Sunshine significantly increased its resource values and volumes in its independently evaluated reserves and resource estimates as at December 31, 2012; total best estimate contingent resource assignment of over 5 billion barrels representing a 2 billion barrel (65%) increase from November 30, 2011.
• The Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding for strategic cooperation with Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation.
• In October, Sunshine secured a $200 million credit facility with a syndicate of financial institutions. This credit facility was oversubscribed and was expanded from its original size due to strong interest.
• The Corporation listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") on November 16, 2012 under the symbol of "SUO".
• Operationally, the Corporation obtained approval for its first Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage ("SAGD") 10,000 barrel per day project at West Ells and commenced civil construction early in the year and mechanical construction in the summer at the West Ells site.
• At West Ells, the Corporation initiated and progressed substantial development of the West Ells project, which is intended to start steaming in the third quarter of 2013.
• In relation to other core areas, Sunshine continues to advance through the regulatory process for its Thickwood and Legend projects with approvals expected in the first half of 2013 and later in 2013, respectively, for an initial 10,000 barrels per day project in each area.

Message to Shareholders

2012 was a year of tremendous success for Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. ("Sunshine" or the "Corporation"). We established our position in the capital markets with the closing of a significant IPO and listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and the Toronto Stock Exchange. We grew our resource and reserves base with large additions and we grew our operational presence materially. All of these accomplishments centered around building shareholder value by moving ahead with the development of our enormous clastic and carbonate resource base in the Athabasca region of Alberta. We view these achievements to be just the beginning for developing our long term production potential aimed at increasing shareholder value.

Capital Market

We started off the year with the successful completion of our Hong Kong initial public offering ("IPO") which saw us raise HK$4.5 billion (approximately $570 million). We secured significant investments from several prominent cornerstone investors. Our IPO was one of the largest IPOs for the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in 2012. A TSX listing in Canada was obtained in the fourth quarter of the year. This TSX listing facilitates the ability for North American shareholders to buy our stock. In the fourth quarter, we continued to focus on securing funding for our projects and negotiated a credit facility of $200 million with a syndicate of several major financial institutions led by Alberta Treasury Branches and Bank of China (Canada). The credit facility was oversubscribed and was expanded from its original size due to strong support from financial institutions that included Bank of America, HSBC Bank, Morgan Stanley, Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto-Dominion Bank, UBS and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. With the success of these financings, we have secured a financial platform that supports our business plan to begin developing our large oil sands asset base. This initial development includes the completion of the construction of the West Ells project, funding of front end costs for the Thickwood project and regulatory development to expand capacity for these two main projects and a third project at Legend. We believe the opportunity at Sunshine is immense.

Facilitating joint venture discussions with parties who have expressed interest for involvement in the development of our attractive assets remains a top priority for Sunshine. Throughout fiscal 2012, we continued discussions with interested parties, including Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation with whom we have a Memorandum of Understanding for strategic cooperation. In addition, in January 2013, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China Oilfield Services Ltd. ("COSL"). We are working with a syndicate of financial advisors to finalize and implement a debt financing strategy.

Reserve Additions

Our resource base is one of the largest in the Athabasca region, where Sunshine owns 100% of approximately 1.1 million acres of oil sands leases. Our December 31, 2012 Reserves and Resources Reports confirmed significant increases in Best Estimate Contingent Resource recognition in both the clastics and carbonates categories compared to  fiscal 2011. Total Petroleum-in-Place ("PIIP"), which is the sum of discovered and undiscovered PIIP components, increased to approximately 70 billion barrels. Clastic Best Estimate Contingent Resource recognition increased by 1.3 billion barrels to 3.7 billion barrels. Carbonate Best Estimate Contingent Resource recognition increased by over 700 million barrels to 1.4 billion barrels. Based on this, we believe our current share price is trading at a significant discount to our PV10% resource and reserves value. Our focus remains on the continuous investment in and development of our massive resource base and, ultimately, production from core project areas in order to translate these opportunities into higher shareholder value.

As we look ahead to our long term plan, we believe opportunities associated with our significant reserves and resource assets are impressive. We have commercial development plans in the West Ells, Thickwood and Legend areas targeting over 300,000 barrels per day of production.

Operational Excellence

With funding in place for West Ells, we broke ground on October 10, 2012 and have made significant progress at the construction site. Several key milestones were successfully achieved including the construction of a 55 km all-season access road, key facility construction and the completion of the drilling of the first pair of horizontal SAGD producer wells. Major equipment has been delivered to site, including heat recovery steam generators and free water knockouts. We kicked off 2013 with the standing of the evaporator tower - meeting schedule and without incident.

We are pleased to report that we are progressing as planned for the West Ells construction schedule. We continue to forecast total capital costs of West Ells at approximately $468 million, excluding road construction costs. With first steam expected in the third quarter of 2013, Phase 1 West Ells is designed to produce 5,000 barrels per day of bitumen followed by an expansion for an additional 5,000 barrels per day expected to be producing from Phase 2 in 2014. As we ramp up activities to achieve near-term production and cash flow, this will provide the basis to further support increasing recognition of value in Sunshine's assets.

Although our near term focus remains on West Ells, we are working to progress regulatory clearance for the Thickwood and Legend applications. We expect to leverage off the first-phase development and construction of our West Ells project and use this data to improve results and cost efficiencies for future development phases and projects. We will continue through the regulatory approval process in 2013 for the 10,000 barrel per day Thickwood and Legend commercial projects. Expansion plans for significant  bitumen production growth will continue, we expect to file expansion applications for West Ells, Thickwood and Legend as rapidly as possible.

Health, Safety and Community

Sunshine remains committed to working with local stakeholders as we build a strong, sound and sustainable organization that is intended to be meaningful in a global context. The Corporation consistently maintains a disciplined approach to health, safety and environmental issues and remains committed to operating in a socially responsible manner with regularly conducted emergency response training, and safety and environmental audits of our operating facilities. We are pleased to report that we had no significant incidents in fiscal 2012.

What's Next

2012 was an exciting year for Sunshine with achievements that set the groundwork for future milestones and accomplishments. 2013 is a pivotal year for Sunshine as we continue to develop West Ells with first steam in the third quarter. By the end of 2013, we should be at or near first production at West Ells and we expect to be moving forward on developments at Thickwood and Legend, with additional commercial applications filed in support of our 300,000 barrel per day growth plan. Sunshine's significant presence in the north-western part of the Athabasca oil sands region represents an opportunity for investors seeking value growth. As a management team, we continue to believe in our execution capabilities and in the experience of our technical team which strives for operational excellence. It is our dedication and commitment to achieve results which will help to deliver on our projects.

Independent Reserves and Resource Assessment, December 31, 2012

Sunshine's oil sands leases in the Athabasca oil sands region of north-eastern Alberta hold an estimated 70 billion barrels of Total Petroleum Initially in Place (PIIP, a sum of discovered and undiscovered PIIP components). Sunshine's Reserves and Resources evaluation completed by the independent evaluators, GLJ Petroleum Consultants Ltd. ("GLJ Report") and DeGolyer and MacNaughton Canada Limited ("D&M Report"), with an effective date of December 31, 2012, confirmed a substantial increase in our recognized reserves and resources from November 30, 2011. Main highlights of the new independently prepared Reserves and Resources Reports include the following:

• 80 million barrels of Proved Reserves with an aggregate pre-tax PV10% value of $362 million;
• 446 million barrels of Proved Plus Probable Reserves with an aggregate pre-tax PV10% value of $990 million; and
• 5.1 billion barrels of Best Estimate Contingent Resources with an aggregate pre-tax PV10% value of $10.3 billion.

The following tables summarize the results of the latest reserves and resources evaluation. In comparison to the November 30, 2011 reserves and resources assessment, the latest evaluation shows a 78 million barrel increase in proved reserves and 27 million barrel increase in proved plus probable reserves. Clastic Best Estimate Contingent resource recognition increased by 1.3 billion barrels to 3.7 billion barrels. Carbonates Best Estimate Contingent resource recognition increased by over 700 million barrels to 1.3 billion barrels. The December 31, 2012 total best estimate contingent resource assignment of over 5 billion barrels represents a 2 billion barrel (65%) increase from November 30, 2011.

Reserves, effective December 31, 2012

Contingent Resources, effective December 31, 2012

Summary of Financial Figures

For the fourth quarter of 2012, the Corporation had a net loss of $9.2 million compared to $2.5 million for the same period in 2011 and net loss per share of $0.00 for both periods. For the year ended December 31, 2012, the Corporation had a net loss of $61.7 million compared to $68.8 million in 2011 and net loss per share for each respective year of $0.02 and $0.05.

As at December 31, the Corporation notes the following selected balance sheet figures:

About Sunshine Oilsands Ltd.

Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. (the "Corporation" or "Sunshine") is a Calgary based public company, listed on the SEHK since March 1, 2012 and the Toronto Stock Exchange since November 16, 2012. Sunshine is focused on the development of its significant holdings of oil sands leases in the Athabasca oil sands region. The Corporation owns 100% of approximately 1.1 million acres of oil sands leases, equivalent to approximately 7% of the total oil sands leases granted in the Athabasca region. The Corporation is currently focused on executing milestone undertakings in the West Ells project area, where first steam is scheduled for the third quarter of 2013. West Ells has an initial production target rate of 5,000 barrels per day, which will be followed immediately by an approved expansion to a planned production capacity of 10,000 barrels per day in early 2014. In addition to West Ells activities, Sunshine is progressing regulatory approvals for two additional 10,000 barrels per day projects, one in Thickwood and one in Legend.

Sunshine's growth is being led by an experienced team with strong capital markets, corporate governance and capital cost discipline.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMER

This presentation (the "Presentation") contains forward-looking information relating to, among other things: (a) the future financial performance and objectives of Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. ("Sunshine" or the "Corporation"); and (b) the plans and expectations of the Corporation.  Such forward-looking information is subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors.  All statements other than statements and information of historical fact are forward-looking statements.  The use of words such as "estimate", "forecast", "expect", "project", "plan", "target", "vision", "goal", "outlook", "may", "will", "should", "believe", "intend", "anticipate", "potential", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements are based on Sunshine's experience, current beliefs, assumptions, information and perception of historical trends available to Sunshine, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to those associated with resource definition and expected reserves and contingent and prospective resources estimates, unanticipated costs and expenses, regulatory approval, fluctuating oil and gas prices, expected future production, the ability to access sufficient capital to finance future development and credit risks, changes in Alberta's regulatory framework, including changes to regulatory approval process and land-use designations, royalty, tax, environmental, greenhouse gas, carbon and other laws or regulations and the impact thereof and the costs associated with compliance.  Although Sunshine believes that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.  Readers are cautioned that the assumptions and factors discussed in this Presentation are not exhaustive and readers are not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied.  Sunshine disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, subsequent to the date of this Presentation, except as required under applicable securities legislation.  The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement and are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements.  Readers are cautioned that the foregoing lists are not exhaustive and are made as at the date hereof.  For a full discussion of our material risk factors, see "Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual Information Form, "Risk Management" in our current MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2011 and risk factors described in other documents we file from time to time with securities regulatory authorities, all of which are available on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at www.hkexnews.hk, on the SEDAR website at http://www.sedar.com/ or our website at http://www.sunshineoilsands.com/.

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