Southern Pacific to Persue 24.000 bpd expansion of STP McKay

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - April 14, 2011) - Southern Pacific Resource Corp. ("Southern Pacific" or the "Company") (TSX:STP) is pleased to report that the drilling results from this past winter's McKay exploration program have confirmed sufficient bitumen resources to support Southern Pacific's planned Phase 2 expansion, which is expected to add an incremental 24,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of bitumen processing capacity to the 12,000 bbl/d STP-McKay Thermal Project currently under construction. Resource Update From December 2010 to March 2011 Southern Pacific drilled a total of 38 coreholes, focused primarily on the eastern side of its existing STP-McKay project area. This brings the total corehole count to 88 inside the existing 10.5 square mile project area, which provides more than adequate delineation of the resource to understand its characteristics. The Company is pleased to report that the recent drilling confirmed the high quality of the bitumen resource identified from previous drilling programs, particularly on the east side of the project area, where the project area was less delineated. The significant feature of the STP-McKay McMurray oil sands is that they are largely continuous, both laterally and vertically, and are free of lean zones or shale barriers. The east side of the project area has now been delineated to a density that is suitable for developing well pad locations and trajectories and will exceed minimum requirements for an expansion application. GLJ Petroleum Consultants Ltd., Southern Pacific's independent reserves evaluators, are currently updating the Company's reserves and resource estimates at McKay. Results will be available after the fiscal year end (June 30, 2011). Expansion Plans Based on the drilling results at McKay, Southern Pacific has decided to proceed with expansion plans designed to add 24,000 bbl/d of bitumen processing capacity to the project, bringing the total design capacity to 36,000 bbl/d. Southern Pacific estimates a total producing project life of over 20 years, based on the discovered bitumen to date, which the Company believes will provide an optimal project life to maximize the project value. Wabiskaw Pilot Project The existing STP-McKay project area includes another formation containing significant quantities of bitumen in place that will not be recovered using typical steam assisted gravity drainage ("SAGD") techniques. The Wabiskaw zone is above the McMurray formation, separated by about 10 metres of shale and shale-y sand. The zone contains high quality bitumen in a clean sand that averages six to eight metres thick, which is too thin for typical SAGD. The Company has recognized the existence of this zone as an incremental potential resource since the original coreholes were drilled within this project in 2009. Southern Pacific has now completed a significant amount of technical work on the Wabiskaw and believes bitumen is recoverable through thermal recovery taking advantage of conductive heat generated from SAGD chambers below in the McMurray formation, and cyclic steam stimulation ("CSS") in single leg horizontal wellbores drilled into the Wabiskaw. The Company views this opportunity as a means to extract additional bitumen with minimal additional capital or energy input. Southern Pacific expects to drill a horizontal observation well into the Wabiskaw zone in the fourth quarter of calendar 2011 to evaluate the concept from one of the first two well pads constructed in STP-McKay Phase 1. Provisions have already been made to accommodate additional Wabiskaw wellbores on the first two well pads that have already been constructed. An updated corporate presentation is now available on Southern Pacific's website (www.shpacific.com) that provides additional information and illustrations of the corehole results, expansion plans and Wabiskaw pilot project. http://www.shpacific.com/en/news/stp-2011-04-14.pdf