Los Angeles, California – 9 May, 2012 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), developer of a breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with California-based PACE to collaborate with oil field operators in Texas and elsewhere to improve petroleum recovery and water cleaning for re-use at well sites, using a process originally developed for algae harvesting.

“The performance we’ve seen from OriginOil’s technology is unheard-of in the industry. Removing 98% of organics from a sample of Texas frac flowback water is beyond impressive,” said Andrew Komor, vice president for environmental water at PACE. “This is the next step, where we get a chance to see that performance in the field. The OriginOil team has been highly responsive and we expect this to be a successful program.”

Subject to definitive agreement, OriginOil plans to provide the equipment and capability to process up to one barrel per minute in continuous flow. Success at this scale would set the stage for a ten-fold increase and beyond.

In keeping with its licensing strategy in algae, oil and gas, and waste removal markets, the memorandum provides that OriginOil may choose to be paid for the equipment and receive a small royalty, or to cover its own costs in return for a larger share of profits.

“This flexible understanding is perfect for our first venture into the oil and gas industry, with the potential for immediate revenue,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil’s CEO. “We love the prospect of being paid up front with a small share of profits, or going for a larger share by paying the costs ourselves. We have high regard for PACE and we look forward to joining them in their fast-moving oil and gas water cleanup projects.”

For more than a year, PACE has been developing a multi-stage process to improve the efficiency of frac flowback water treatment for re-use. PACE plans to replace the early stages of chemical flocculation and dissolved air flotation with OriginOil’s process, potentially improving the performance and scalability of on-site water re-use, and reducing both capital and operating expenses.

Eckelberry added, “We intend to aggressively explore oil and gas licensing opportunities while staying the course in algae harvesting.”

Frac flowback describes water used in a drilling process called ‘hydraulic fracturing’, or ‘fracking’. The sample from which OriginOil was able to remove 98% of organics was taken from an oil well from which 200,000 gallons of oil-rich water flowed back over a period of two weeks. The results are shown in this photo.

Recovering more organic chemicals and petroleum improves oil well profitability and makes it possible to re-use the water onsite, saving on trucking and offsite disposal costs, and reducing environmental impact.

Water is produced and used in large quantities in oil and gas operations. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, an average of 3 barrels of contaminated water is generated for each 1 barrel of oil produced. In the United States, the average is 7 barrels of water. According to industry reports, energy companies pay between $3 –$12 to dispose of each barrel of produced water, implying a potential world market value between $300 billion and $1 trillion per year.

Los Angeles, California and Palma De Mallorca, Spain – 3 May, 2012 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), developer of breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, and Algasol Renewables, a technology company with a unique patented technology for low-cost cultivation of micro algae for biofuels and high value products, today announced that they intend to collaborate on the development of an integrated algae growth and harvesting system. By bundling their products, the two companies plan to achieve new levels of cost and performance in micro algae cultivation for biofuels and high value products.

“Algasol’s patented system focuses on how to grow algae in floating bags, and their testing has indicated this can be much more efficient than other cultivation methods,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil’s CEO. “Now with NASA and Lawrence Berkley working with Algasol, we are excited and eager to contribute our own breakthrough harvesting system to help us collectively achieve a cost breakthrough in the race to compete with petroleum.”

Algasol’s floating bags or photobioreactors (PBRs) can operate in the ocean or in salt water ponds on land. Because they float, Algasol believes their PBRs achieve optimal light exposure with outstanding productivity results and avoid the high temperature and excess salinity often encountered in solar growth systems. Algasol has received a patent in 70 countries for its unique method of floating bags using relative water density.

“With customer demand for an integrated algae production process rising, we need to offer our customers a means of harvesting as well,” said Miguel Verhein, executive director of Algasol Renewables. “We plan to recommend OriginOil’s field-proven chemical-free, high flow and low-energy harvesting system, and once available, the integrated biocrude system they are developing with the Department of Energy.”

Algasol recently entered into a partnership with NASA and the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy. In addition, Algasol has collaborated and maintains a close relationship with Arizona State University (ASU), and is a cornerstone of the recently inaugurated Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI).

OriginOil is working with the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to implement a downstream fuel conversion process which it plans to offer as part of the Algasol-OriginOil bundle.

Los Angeles, CA – 25 April, 2012 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), developer of a breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, announced today that in recent independent third-party testing OriginOil’s algae harvesting process was able to remove 98% of hydrocarbons from a sample of West Texas oil well ‘frac flowback’ water in the first stage alone. The results point to a potentially valuable application of the company’s core water processing technology, originally invented for algae harvesting.

Frac flowback describes water used in a drilling process called ‘hydraulic fracturing’, or ‘fracking’. This test sample was taken from an oil well from which 200,000 gallons of oil-rich water flowed back over a period of two weeks. The water resources firm PACE Engineering supplied the sample and analyzed the results shown in this photo.

“The test results surpassed what we expected of OriginOil when we sent them the sample,” said Andrew Komor, vice president for environmental water at PACE Engineering. “The first pass results showed not 70-75% removal of hydrocarbons as is typical of current technology, but 98%. We realized then that this could be a game-changer for the oil and gas industry.”

Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil, commented, “Oil well water cleanup is a multi-stage process. We work at the first stage to ‘break the emulsion’ and quickly remove nearly all of the petroleum without chemicals. We could contribute to the economical re-use of oil well water, a win for the industry and the environment.”

“We intend to aggressively explore oil and gas licensing opportunities while staying the course in algae harvesting,” added Mr. Eckelberry.

This photo depicts samples of the three stages in which OriginOil first removed over 98% of hydrocarbons and other organics (measured by chemical oxygen demand or COD) in the first stage, and clarified the sample in the final stage, eliminating color (PtCo CU) by 99.8%.

Water is produced and used in large quantities in oil and gas operations. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, an average of 3 barrels of contaminated water is generated for each 1 barrel of oil produced. In the United States, the average is 7 barrels of water. Greentech Media reports that energy companies pay between $3 – $12 to dispose of each barrel of produced water, implying a potential world market value between $300 billion and $1 trillion per year.

Los Angeles, CA – 18 April, 2012 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), developer of breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, announced today that a breakthrough chemical-free process developed for algae harvesting may also help clean up the water produced in oil well water flooding and hydraulic fracturing.

Using a lab prototype of the technology, OriginOil researchers have been able to clarify samples of flowback water from a Texas oil well carrying heavy concentrations of dissolved organics, known as frac flowback. In this photo, the heavy concentration of petroleum in the oil well water samples was easily separated from water and floated to the surface for removal.

The petroleum industry uses large quantities of water to help fracture or “frac” rock formations deep underground to release more oil and gas. According to the energy industry resource Platts, the global hydraulic fracturing market grew 63 percent from $19 billion in 2010 to $31 billion in 2011, and is projected to rise a further 19 percent in 2012.

“Our research team has learned that extracting petroleum and contaminants from water is very much like extracting algae,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO. “They are both very hard to remove without using chemicals and heavy machinery. Our innovative chemical-free, high flow and low-energy process holds promise for the billions of gallons of water used daily in the oil and gas industry worldwide.”

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, for every barrel of oil produced globally, an average of three barrels of contaminated water is produced. In the United States, the water to oil ratio (WOR) averages seven barrels of water to one of oil. In the worst cases, the WOR reaches 50 to 1.

The petroleum must be efficiently reclaimed from this water, and the water itself must be cleaned. Greentech Media reports that energy companies pay between $3 – $12 to dispose of each barrel of produced water, implying a potential world market value between $300 billion and $1 trillion per year.

“It seems that in addition to helping create the renewable energy market of the future, we may add value to a massive existing energy market,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil’s CEO. “We will continue to investigate and report on this promising new application of our technology.”

Los  Angeles, California – 09 April, 2012 –  OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), developer of a breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, announced today the appointment of technology, finance, and media strategist, Steve Glovsky to its board of directors. With this appointment, the Company increased its board seats from three to four as Mr. Glovsky becomes the second independent director on OriginOil’s board. The board also established its Audit and Compensation Committees and intends to appoint members to the committees in the near future.

“We are honored that Steve has accepted this position,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil chairman and CEO. “He brings many years of expertise in Sarbanes-Oxley and other key matters as these become increasingly important to a maturing public company. We welcome him to our team and look forward to great things together.”

Steven Glovsky added, “I’m excited to become part of OriginOil at a time when it could be making decisive commercial and technology moves. I hope to help Chairman and CEO Riggs Eckelberry with governing a public company as it expands onto the national and world stage.”

Mr. Glovsky has served as a consultant to a number of technology and media companies, where he has advised chief executive officers and division managers on strategic, product, business and financial matters. He currently consults for a robotics company that designs and builds mobile robots for manufacturing.

As a consultant to Adstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADST), a technology company in the publishing industry, Glovsky managed the initial set up and implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley and SAS70 regulatory requirements. He has consulted with Titan (NYSE:TTN – acquired by L-3 Communications), a leading provider of information and communications products, solutions, and services to government entities, and MaxPreps, Inc. a leading online sports publisher, acquired by CBS. He served as Director of Enrollment for Adult Studies at Aquinas College, managed by the Institute for Professional Development, a division of Apollo Group (NASDAQ: APOL).

Prior to this, Steven Glovsky was a Senior Manager at Arthur Andersen and spent five years in the banking industry at Bank of America managing an employee compensation program for 6,000+ employees, and Security Pacific National Bank where he built and managed compensation programs for four operating divisions. Glovsky is a non-practicing attorney of law. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Southern California Law Center and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University.

Los  Angeles, California – 23 March, 2012 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), developer of a breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, announced today the release of a new entry-level, low-cost algae harvester that it believes will make it easier, faster and cheaper for producers and researchers to try and buy OriginOil’s proprietary harvesting technology.

Driven by a major design breakthrough, the new price point of the Algae Appliance™ Model 4 is expected to greatly accelerate adoption of OriginOil’s chemical-free, continuous-flow, very low-energy system. The company intends to make it easy for Model 4 users to upgrade to industrial scale models of the Algae Appliance.

“Algae producers know they don’t have the right technology for sustainable harvesting, but they aren’t sure the new technology will work for them. This leads to wasteful and lengthy evaluation periods,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil’s CEO. “This new trial-size model cuts through that process by letting producers evaluate very quickly and make a decision to move up to full scale. Meanwhile, we expect the Model 4 to find a permanent place in research labs.”

OriginOil’s French joint venture partner Ennesys will receive the first Model 4. “Given the very tight space constraints in our urban test program, we needed a super compact, integrated algae harvester,” said Pierre Tauzinat, President of Ennesys. “The new design is perfect, as is the price point. We know numerous researchers and producers who are waiting for such an affordable and simple algae harvester. It’s a revolution!”

Designated the Algae Appliance™ Model 4 for its rated capacity of four liters (about a gallon) per minute, the new unit will operate either continuously or intermittently for testing purposes on a wide variety of microalgae strains.

“We’ve vastly simplified the process by doing everything at once in the same vessel: dewatering, cell rupture, and the final concentration stage,” said Nicholas Eckelberry, OriginOil’s co-founder and the inventor of the new design. “We think the design breakthrough will transform the cost of our larger models too, helping many more companies go into algae production in a big way.”

The new model carries a manufacturer’s suggested price of $50,000, with credits for strategic partners who sign a multi-phase collaboration agreement with OriginOil. Additional credits will be available for upgrading or trading in the Model 4 to larger systems. OriginOil will also offer training and certification in high-speed algae production and harvesting at its Los Angeles headquarters.

The company recently filed for patent protection of the new harvesting technology, its 30^th patent application, entitled “Systems and Methods For Harvesting and Dewatering Algae.”

Los  Angeles, California & Paris, France  – 8 March, 2012 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), developer of a breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, today received a firm order from its French joint venture partner Ennesys to supply OriginOil’s Algae Appliance™ harvester and other components for a test of urban algae production. Located in the iconic La Défense complex near Paris, the program aims to show that algae production can be integrated into large building complexes.

“This is a clear sign that algae is being seriously evaluated to help improve the eco-footprint of massive commercial developments,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil’s CEO. “This order marks another sale and revenue generation from our commercialized algae systems. And we’re delighted to have a high-profile showcase for our technologies in Europe.”

The Ennesys demonstration is designed to test the suitability of algae production in helping large commercial buildings achieve a positive energy balance and natural water management, as envisioned by France’s RT 2020 sustainable energy framework. Partial funding is anticipated from regional government entities.

“Our government is serious about minimizing the environmental impact of the massive developments now being planned for the Paris regional area,” said Pierre Tauzinat, CEO of Ennesys. “We intend to show that algae production can be safely and productively integrated into urban settings.”

At 40% of total consumption, buildings are Europe’s greatest source of energy demand. France has taken the ambitious step of mandating that by 2020, all new buildings must generate more clean energy than they consume, and must purify and recycle water naturally.

These regulations are seen as a major market opportunity for algae. In addition to being a source of clean energy and water management, algae absorbs large amounts of CO2, creating a carbon neutral fuel that eliminates equivalent amounts of emissions from fossil fuels.

“Coinciding with President Obama’s recent endorsement of algae as a way to reduce U.S. oil imports, this project reflects widening global recognition of algae as a means to reduce fossil fuel use and the CO2 emissions that come with it,” added Eckelberry.

Since May 2011, OriginOil’s joint venture partner Ennesys has been engaged by major French developers to study the integration of wastewater algae production in two massive building projects in the Greater Paris region and other French cities, with a total area exceeding 35 million square feet (1 million m²).

On September 30 2011, Ennesys beat out eleven other companies to win the top prize in the first annual Venture Competition at the Budapest Innovation Festival. The competitors were all selected by the partner network of Climate-KIC (Knowledge & Innovation Community), an initiative of the European Institute of Technology (EIT).

(photo of Climate-KIC CEO Professor Mary Ritter of The Imperial College of London, awarding the Venture Competition prize to Ennesys CEO Pierre Tauzinat.)

OriginOil recently published the results of a study pointing to ways to make algae production much more cost-effective, potentially enabling algae production in urban settings.

About Ennesys SAS

A French partnership of UK-based incubator PJC and algae oil services leader OriginOil, Ennesys was launched in 2010 to meet the challenge of new European environmental regulations using innovative algae technologies. The joint venture focuses on urbanized markets, where high population densities and energy prices can give algae a major advantage for waste to energy generation. Ennesys is leveraging its extensive relationships in the large-scale French construction industry and its knowledge of EU carbon regulations to develop large-scale, viable projects for green buildings and other advanced algae projects. www.ennesys.com

Los Angeles, CA – 24 February, 2012  – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), developer of a breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, today announced a new company study indicating for the first time that algae producers worldwide can now make transportation fuels cost-effectively themselves.

The Company’s analysis points to a potential production cost as low as $2.28/gallon ($0.60/Liter) for gasoline or diesel using a blend of algae and waste feedstocks, using the latest growth, harvesting and fuel conversion technologies from OriginOil and other innovators.

“In his recent energy address, President Obama cast an unconditional vote for U.S. energy security using algae to replace up to 17% of our imported oil,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil’s CEO. “This is no pipe dream: we now know that any algae producer can make gasoline and diesel right at the point of production, and compete with petroleum.

“The Administration’s policy commitment, combined with the U.S. Defense Department’s long-term commitment to include biofuels in its operations, will help bring about the wide adoption of algae-based fuel in this decade,” added Eckelberry.

The company cautions that this is a first look at the impact of these new technologies that is subject to large-scale revision. OriginOil will make the model available to algae producers at no charge for their business planning and intends to solicit private input from the algae industry to improve it continuously.

“Yesterday President Obama spoke about the potential of algae biomass to displace 17% of our current consumption of petroleum”, said OriginOil scientific advisor, Dr. Thomas H. Ulrich, previously an Advisory Scientist at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL). “This is not unreasonable given recent improvements in biomass harvesting and collection efficiencies and other technology enhancements being made by companies like OriginOil in partnership with the INL for further developing and validating these technologies.”

OriginOil’s comprehensive model analyzes the entire algae production process at scale, integrating the latest advances in growth, harvesting and fuel conversion. In the lowest-cost scenario, algae harvested using OriginOil’s Algae Appliance™ is blended with waste feedstocks and converted onsite to achieve a modeled production cost of $2.28 per gallon for gasoline or diesel. This cost roughly doubles to $5.44/gallon ($1.44/Liter) when using pure algae feedstocks. The model assumes a production footprint of at least 50 hectares (124 acres).

Low cost and ready availability of waste products are behind U.S. plans to implement a blending strategy that includes algae for its high energy content and petrochemical profile. In December 2011, the Defense Logistics Agency announced the single largest purchase of biofuel in US history, using a blend of algae and waste cooking oil.

Dr. Ulrich, a key contributor to developing the Blendable Feedstock Standard in which OriginOil is collaborating with the Department of Energy, went on to say, “The lowering of these costs is the result of integrating harvesting and collection preprocessing strategies that can benefit from the blending of the physical and chemical properties of different combinations of biomass feedstocks and other waste products”.

“What we need now are well funded and coordinated efforts by industry and government to integrate and test the best of these diverse technology enhancements. It is very important to validate these promising technologies at the pilot as well as at the commercial production scales. Government support of such scaled projects is appropriate and critical to our nation’s energy independence,” concluded Ulrich.

In addition to providing local job development and environmental and balance of trade benefits, the domestic production of renewable liquid transport fuels is a strategic focus for U.S defense planning as a method to mitigate the effects of a possible loss of foreign petroleum supplies.

Los Angeles, California & Melbourne, Australia – 15 February, 2012 – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), a leading developer of next-generation algae oil technologies for the transportation fuel, chemicals and foods markets, today announced that it has named Melbourne-based Frontline Engineering Australia as OriginOil’s first Certified Support Partner worldwide.

Building on a successful collaboration to date, Frontline will help algae producers and integrators install, engineer and operate OriginOil systems in Australia and also the Asia-Pacific region.

“Frontline has been an effective and innovative support partner beginning with our first commercial customer, MBD Energy,” said Ken Reynolds, OriginOil’s vice president of marketing. “As we prepare to expand our sales channel and customer base throughout the Asia-Pacific region, working with MBD and others, we expect that our customers will have prompt access to trained and certified technical staff close to their own time zone.”

Mark Ellison, managing director of Frontline Engineering Australia, stated, “We are very pleased that OriginOil chose our firm as its first Certified Support Partner. Algae production is one of the fastest growing new industries in Australia, with the potential to dramatically impact our production of carbon-neutral foods and fuels. We look forward to playing a key role in the development of that industry both here and in the rest of the region.”

“Frontline Engineering Australia is a reliable provider of engineering services and is especially well qualified in the field of ‘smart’ power supplies, which is key to supporting OriginOil’s customers in the field,” said Larry Sirmans, CEO of Future Energy Systems and previously Technical Director at leading Australian algae producer MBD Energy. “I am very happy to see that OriginOil has selected them to provide field services to algae producers throughout Australia and in Asia-Pacific.”

A number of commercial algae producers, such as MBD Energy, are taking advantage of Australia’s ideal growing conditions in terms of sunlight and available land, combined with strong industry support from the Australian government and leading algal research facilities such as James Cook University and University of Queensland. Last year Finland’s Neste Oil, together with a consortium of 17 other companies known as the AlgaePARC project, announced plans to expand research and development of renewable algae biofuels with a focus on production in Australia.

Los Angeles, CA February 7, 2012  – OriginOil, Inc. (OTC/BB: OOIL), a leading developer of next-generation technologies to produce transportation fuels, chemicals and foods, announced today it demonstrated its low-energy Algae Appliance™ to industry executives from a workshop hosted by the National Algae Association (NAA) at the University of Southern California.

OriginOil also showed new technologies in development in the lab, and the Max One mobile algae harvester. A video and a photo gallery of the event can be viewed at http://www.originoil.com/latest-news/national-algae-association-tours-originoil.html

“This is the first time in the USA that an industry group has seen our Algae Appliance, and we are very pleased with the feedback,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO. “We showed an early version of the system last August to an industry group in Australia – and now we’re live in the USA!”

The Algae Appliance is a low-energy, chemical-free, continuous-flow ‘wet harvest’ system that can remove up to 90 percent of the water in which algae lives. Dewatering algae is considered a major barrier to commercial algae production. OriginOil released the system in October 2011 as an algae harvesting “starter kit” for producers the world over who are exiting the laboratory phase. For more information, visit www.algaeappliance.com.

“We are very pleased with the attendees’ interest and enthusiasm for our current and upcoming products,” said Ken Reynolds, OriginOil vice president of marketing. “We developed several potential sales and strategic partnership opportunities as a direct result of this event, and we plan to schedule more of these demonstrations of our breakthrough technologies to this fast-growing industry.”