NEWS RELEASE

December 1, 2008

Acorn International is pleased to announce that Heather Boyd has been selected to participate in the 2009 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Americas E&P Environmental & Safety Conference to be held March 23-25 in San Antonio, TX.

• Heather Boyd (Environmental Consultant) has been selected to present a paper coauthored by Dean Slocum and Atma Khalsa entitled, “Process Check: What is Driving Alternatives Analysis in Environmental Impact Assessment for Major Capital Projects?" in March 2009. This paper was selected by a peer review committee from among hundreds of paper abstracts that were submitted by professionals worldwide. The paper will evaluate the current trends in alternatives analysis for major capital projects and provide an opinion on how the process might change to improve environmental and social performance of the oil and gas industry.

SPE is the premier industry organization of over 70,000 members supporting the technical interests of global oil and gas exploration and production activities. Acorn is proud to be an active participant in SPE, including serving as a member of the Environmental Subcommittee for six SPE International HSE conferences over the last 10 years.

Acorn International, LLC is a professional consulting services company dedicated to delivering world-class, affordable EHSS assurance and straight-forward results for overseas development projects.  The company operates not through a traditional consulting services model but by providing structured tools and guidance to qualified host-country teams, maintaining a link with international clients and building capacity in the host-country team. Acorn delivers:

1.       Established teams of local country experts partnered with and directed by an expert in assuring world-class EHSS assessment and management performance standards are met

2.       Advice to international industry needing to build world-class EHSS programs

3.       Recruitment and oversight/management of partners and service providers (EHSS and other) overseas

Working with Acorn allows international industries to better manage the increasingly delicate balance between meeting corporate requirements for reliable, simplified service while satisfying host-country demands for maximum local content.