OriginOil Announces Successful First Phase of Commercial Algae-fuel Pilot Program - VIDEO ENHANCED

LOS ANGELES - December 8, 2010: OriginOil, Inc. (OOIL), the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum, today announced the successful completion of the first phase of its commercial pilot program, earning high praise for quality and performance from MBD Energy, OriginOil�s first customer and pilot partner.

"We are very pleased with OriginOil�s flawless demonstration of its CO2 feeding and algae extraction systems to date," said Andrew Lawson, MBD Energy�s managing director. "We are also impressed with the quality of the engineering and the expertise of the team as algae growers and harvesting specialists."

"Completing this first phase is a major milestone for us. We are excited to move on to the next stage of our multi-phase commercialization program with our global partner, MBD Energy, culminating in the deployment of OriginOil systems in full-scale power plant operations," said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO.

In a video recorded at MBD�s research site at James Cook University in North Queensland, Australia, Technical Director Larry Sirmans described the-end-to-end harvesting process that his team developed with OriginOil�s technology and support.

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"We approached OriginOil with our design concept and it�s turned into quite a bit of a collaborative arrangement," explained Sirmans. "We�re quite excited, because we�ve pretty much proven a concept that now we�re actually ready to go to a full scale trial."

Earlier this year, MBD became OriginOil�s first customer for the first of progressively larger systems to serve its three major power station projects in Australia. According to MBD Energy, each of its power station projects has the potential to grow to 80-hectare commercial plants, each capable of producing 11 million liters of oil for plastics and transport fuel. MBD Energy estimates that, subject to performance and joint approvals, the projects have potential at full scale to consume more than half of each power station�s flue-gas emissions.

Recently, OriginOil and MBD entered into a strategic agreement protecting OriginOil�s intellectual property for pilot projects and granting mutual marketing rights.

About OriginOil, Inc.
OriginOil, Inc. is developing a breakthrough technology that will transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum. Much of the world's oil and gas is made up of ancient algae deposits. Today, our technology will produce "new oil" from algae, through a cost-effective, high-speed manufacturing process. This endless supply of new oil can be used for many products, such as diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, plastics and solvents, without the global warming effects of petroleum. Other oil-producing feedstock, such as corn and sugarcane, often destroy vital farmlands and rainforests, disrupt global food supplies and create new environmental problems. Our unique technology, based on algae, is targeted at fundamentally changing our source of oil without disrupting the environment or food supplies. To learn more about OriginOil please visit our website at www.originoil.com.

About MBD Energy Limited
MBD is an Australian based public, unlisted technology company. One of the world's largest mining companies, Anglo American, became a cornerstone investor in MBD in 2009 and Anglo Coal's Global CEO, Seamus French, has recently joined as a non-executive director of MBD Energy. The MBD Energy Board is chaired by former BHP Chairman, Jerry Ellis. MBD has a joint research and development facility located at James Cook University (JCU), Townsville, Queensland. MBD Energy and its JCU team are regarded as international leaders in the use of captured flue-gases as feedstock to produce algal biomass for Bio-CCS. In addition to the project at Tarong Power Station, MBD Energy currently has two similar projects underway with Loy Yang Power in Victoria and Eraring Energy in New South Wales. MBD Energy is a founding member of the Bio CCS program. The program is made up of a number of regional projects with each targeting 50 million tonnes of greenhouse gas sequestration per year by 2020. For more information visit www.mbdenergy.com.