Oilsands Quest expands its executive management team with the appointment of Jamey Fitzgibbon as President & Chief Operating Officer

    Amex: BQI



    CALGARY, July 17 /EMWNews/ - Oilsands Quest Inc. (Amex:

BQI) announces the appointment of Jamey Fitzgibbon P.Eng, MBA as President

and Chief Operating Officer of the company. Mr. Fitzgibbon joins the senior

executive office of the founder and Chief Executive Officer Christopher H.

Hopkins and Executive Chairman T. Murray Wilson. This team will steward the

company's expanding exploration and delineation work, the active

commercialization of its assets, the continuing management of the ongoing

reservoir testing, the joint venture partnership discussions and the

planned development of its first 30,000 bpd project.



    Mr. Fitzgibbon has impressive credentials and highly relevant

experience. He most recently served as Vice President, Resource Development

of OPTI Canada Inc. where his responsibilities included:






    -   all aspects of OPTI's non-operated (Nexen operated) business lines,

        including SAGD project execution and operations, marketing, resource

        delineation and future phase development. This included leading

        OPTI's team of geoscience and engineering professionals;



    -   all aspects of OPTI's planning and business development, including

        corporate planning and financial modeling, reserves management and

        corporate strategy development; and



    -   assisting in executing and leading various financings at OPTI,

        including private and public equity (over $1.5 billion) and private

        and public debt (over $3 billion), supporting financial planning and

        investor relations, and representing OPTI at conferences and investor

        presentations.

    Mr. Fitzgibbon has a B. Sc. in chemical engineering from Queen's

University and an MBA from University of Calgary. Additional industry

experience includes 14 years in oil sands and heavy oil, including 10 years

with Esso Resources principally at the Cold Lake development and 4 years at

Elan Energy and Ranger Oil, where he was Manager of Heavy Oil. Prior to

joining OPTI in 2002, Mr. Fitzgibbon was Vice President of TD Securities

where (along with Mr. Wilson) he was a founding member of TD's oil sands

investment banking practice.



    The Oilsands Quest senior executive team



    "We are thrilled to have Jamey Fitzgibbon join our senior management

team as President and COO," said Christopher Hopkins, Oilsands Quest CEO.

"We have a very significant exploration and development agenda ahead of us

and we know Jamey's proven talents, execution capability and energy will

greatly assist Oilsands Quest in continuing to achieve its

commercialization goals."



    T. Murray Wilson, Executive Chairman added, "Mr. Fitzgibbon's skills

will not only enhance the executive offices of the company, but will enable

an expanded and aggressive focus on planning and execution to ensure the

successful delivery of the tremendous underlying shareholder value in

Oilsands Quest's assets and businesses."



    Mr. Fitzgibbon is scheduled to commence his duties with Oilsands Quest

mid September 2008.

    About Oilsands Quest



    Oilsands Quest Inc. is applying its technical expertise to develop

multiple global-scale discoveries while aggressively exploring Canada's

largest contiguous oil sands land holding. The company

(http://www.oilsandsquest.com) is the originator of Saskatchewan's emerging oil

sands industry.



    Forward-looking statements



    Except for statements of historical fact relating to Oilsands Quest,

this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the

meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is

frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project",

"intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "potential", "prospective"

and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions

"may", "will", or "could" occur. Forward-looking statements such as

references to Oilsands Quest's reservoir field test program and recovery

factors in the field are based on the opinions and estimates of management

at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks

and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ

materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. These

risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to,

technical risks inherent in construction projects in the oil sands

industry, regulatory and economic risks, lack of infrastructure in the

region in which the company's resources are located and risks associated

with Oilsands Quest's ability to implement its business plan. There are

uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors

beyond Oilsands Quest's control, and no assurance can be given that the

construction of the facilities and the execution of the test program will

be completed on time, on budget or at all. Oilsands Quest undertakes no

obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or

management's estimates or opinions should change, except as required by

law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking

statements. The risks and uncertainties set forth above are not exhaustive.

Readers should refer to Oilsands Quest's current annual report on Form 10-K

and other document filings, which are available at http://www.sedar.com and at

http://www.sec.gov for a detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties and

details regarding the location and extent of Oilsands Quest's land

holdings.