Imperial Petroleum has acquired the exclusive rights to Canada to develop a process designed to recover bitumen or heavy oil from tar and oil sands.

The oil sands recovery process uses a non-thermal, mechanical and chemical closed-loop system to recover the bitumen.

Imperial president Jeffrey Wilson said that as a result of the high temperatures employed in the recovery process currently in use in Canada, significant environmental issues associated with oil sand production have been created.

The purchase of the exclusive rights to what the company believes is a cost-effective and eco-friendly processing technology.

Imperial had earlier revealed the formation of Arrakis Oil Recovery in which it owns a 33.3% interest in the same process technology for territories outside of Canada.

As per the acquisition, the company issued 1 million shares of its restricted common stock to the developer of the process, Proven Engineering & Technologies.