SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- (Marketwire) -- 11/19/12 -- As oil shale producer Red Leaf Resources moves from the technology development and R&D phase into full-scale production, it is pleased to announce their hiring of a CEO with vast natural resource development experience, Adolph Lechtenberger.

Lechtenberger has experience in all aspects of Red Leaf's business. He has worked in surface mining, refining and marketing of petroleum products, and was the new technology manager for the Colony oil shale project in the 1980s. He has overseen the full life-cycle of energy production and has helped several companies through growth periods that require strong leadership. Lechtenberger succeeds Jim Patten, who was part of the founding team at RLR and will serve as Vice President of Technology Development.

"I am very excited to join Red Leaf as they embark on commercializing the game changing EcoShale™ In-Capsule Process for oil shale," said Lechtenberger. "Because this technology addresses major environmental concerns of the past surrounding oil shale, the success of Red Leaf's first development project will prove that oil can be produced from oil shale in an efficient, cost-effective and environmentally responsible way."

Red Leaf has significant oil shale leaseholds located in the Uintah Basin of Utah. The company has already completed a successful test of its EcoShale™ In-Capsule Process. This patented 'ex-situ' technology is applicable to shallow oil shale formations that is first mined, then placed into large sealed capsules before undergoing a slow pyrolysis reaction to yield high quality hydrocarbons. The EcoShale™ process has a significantly reduced environmental footprint compared to operations for any other existing 'ex-situ' oil shale production technologies.

Earlier this year, Red Leaf announced a joint-venture partnership with the U.S. affiliate of Total SA, the 5th largest international integrated oil and gas company. Red Leaf and Total will soon commence a commercial demonstration of the EcoShale™ technology, intended to prove the economic and environmental attributes of the process. Thereafter, Red Leaf and Total intend to proceed with an advanced commercial scale project on jointly owned oil shale leaseholds that are estimated to contain several hundred million barrels of recoverable hydrocarbons.

About Oil Shale

Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary source rocks containing immature hydrocarbons in the form of kerogen. This kerogen can be matured through a chemical process involving external heating in absence of oxygen (pyrolysis).

First production of hydrocarbons from oil shale dates back to 1837 in France. The current worldwide production is less than 40 kb/d mainly located in Brazil, China and Estonia. Oil shale represents a huge potential of hydrocarbon resources amounting to several thousands of billions of barrels, mainly located in US, Brazil, China and Australia, but also in Jordan and Morocco and many other locations globally. The Green River Formation, which includes the Uintah Basin in the State of Utah, is probably the world's most prolific formation for oil shale with more than 2 trillion barrels of potential resources.