CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. ("Sunshine" or the "Corporation") (HKEX: 2012, TSX: SUO) is pleased to announce that it received Alberta Order in Council approval for the Thickwood project on September 6, 2013.The next regulatory step is final AER (Alberta Energy Regulator) approval. The Thickwood Project is Sunshine's second Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) commercial development. The Thickwood site is located approximately 70 kilometers west of Ft. McMurray, Alberta, off the same road used to access its first SAGD project at West Ells about 40 kilometers away. President and CEO John Zahary said: "We are pleased to achieve this important milestone in realizing Sunshine's tremendous potential. Thickwood will provide asset diversification, as well as another core area for advancing Sunshine's growth." The Thickwood Project schedule is under development and will proceed on obtaining additional funding. The Thickwood Project area holds approximately 163 million barrels of Proved plus Probable reserves, and about 341 million barrels of Best Estimate Contingent resource, the reserves and resource evaluation completed by independent evaluators, effective Dec. 31, 2012, enough to possibly grow production to approximately 70,000 barrels per day.
