ELE Elemental Altus Royalties Corp

Excelsior Energy Limited (TSX VENTURE:ELE) ("Excelsior" or the "Company")
announces that is has filed its financial statements and management's discussion
and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2008. The Company has also filed
its reports regarding its reserve data and other oil and natural gas information
as mandated by National Instrument 51-101. The above referenced documents are
available for viewing on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.


"We are excited by the opportunity that our proprietary in situ combustion
technology ("COGD") could provide a lower cost and more efficient recovery
process for heavy oil and bitumen. The Company is on track to submit its
experimental project application by the end of June 2009 to demonstrate the
technology. Two seasons of core well delineation have confirmed the high quality
bitumen resource at Hangingstone which importantly, is in close proximity to
infrastructure that will drive the project cycle-time and capital efficiency"
said David Winter, Excelsior's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The
Company continues to meet its objectives and execute its programs on schedule
and on budget. Excelsior is fully funded to submit its Hangingstone COGD project
application, reprocess seismic in the North Sea and cover ongoing general and
administration costs to the end of 2010. We recognise that current economic
conditions limit access to capital and will await the return of market stability
in order to finance the COGD pilot at Hangingstone and appraisal of our North
Sea properties."


2008 Highlights

- The Company completed the 2007/2008 winter drilling program in March, 2008
drilling a total of 35 core wells at Hangingstone and Surmont which represented
the majority of $14.3 million of capital expenditures in 2008. The program was
completed on schedule and on budget with results exceeding expectations.
Fourteen of these wells contained excellent net pay thickness in excess of 20
meters, including six wells exceeding 30 meters.


- An independent engineering report on the Hangingstone asset was completed by
McDaniel and Associates in July 2008, ("the Report"). The Report assigned 119
mmbbls of contingent resources, 1.59 billion barrels of discovered resource
(petroleum initially in place) and a further 86 mmbbls of prospective resource.
The Company updated the reports for Hangingstone and West Surmont to December
31, 2008. The updated reports assigned 132 mmbbls of contingent resources, 2.2
billion barrels of discovered resource (petroleum initially in place) and a
further 85 mmbbls of prospective resource. The reports were updated to include
data from two new core holes drilled in late December 2008 at Hangingstone, and
nine wells drilled at West Surmont in Q1 2008, and current economic conditions
and oil price forecast.


- The Company developed a proprietary in situ combustion bitumen-recovery
process ("Combustion Overhead Gravity Drainage"). The COGD technology provides
an opportunity to significantly improve bitumen recovery economics through both
enhanced recovery gains and substantial reductions in the amount of required
water, fuel gas and diluents than that used in SAGD applications. The Company
has consequently suspended plans to develop Hangingstone with steam assisted
gravity drainage ("SAGD") technology in favour of a strategy to deploy a COGD
process.


- The Company completed two equity financings in 2008 for gross proceeds of
$12.5 million. Excelsior had working capital of $11.5 million at December 31,
2008 to fund the 2008/2009 winter core drilling program at Hangingstone, an
experimental COGD in situ pilot application, and general corporate expenses to
the end of 2010.


- The Company restructured its holdings in Excelsior Energy North Sea Limited
("EENS") exchanging all shares of EENS for shares in ENS Energy Ltd. ("ENS"), a
newly incorporated Alberta private company. Subsequent to the restructuring, ENS
issued 25% of its common shares in a private placement for gross proceeds of
$1.0 million. The financing had the effect of reducing the Company's equity
interest in ENS from 100% to 75% as Excelsior did not participate in the
financing resulting in a gain on reorganization of $614,544. The transaction
segregated the Company's oil sands and North Sea assets to provide better access
to capital markets for these opportunities independently.


- The Company had commitments to incur and renounce $16,425,800 of eligible
expenditures by December 31, 2008, and $9,237,766 of eligible expenditures by
December 31, 2009. As at December 31, 2008, the Company incurred approximately
$18,080,000 of eligible expenditures. The remaining $7,583,566 of eligible
expenditures to be incurred by December 31, 2009 are expected to be satisfied
with the 2008/2009 winter drilling program at Hangingstone.


2009 Activity and Outlook

- Excelsior successfully completed a 29 core well delineation program in mid
March at Hangingstone on schedule and on budget. Two additional areas discovered
last year have been further delineated. These greatly expand the area of thick
bitumen sands and confirm the excellent resource potential at Hangingstone. A
new resource report incorporating all 29 new core wells by McDaniel and
Associates is expected to be completed by late Q2 2009.


- All data necessary to support the experimental project application has been
obtained and Excelsior expects to submit a COGD experimental project application
to the Alberta Government targeted by the end of Q2 2009. Regulatory approval is
expected to take approximately one year with pilot start-up anticipated for Q1
2011.


- Seismic reprocessing on licence P1500 in the UK North Sea has been completed
and interpreted. A potential drilling location has been identified to test one
of the prospects which is a step-out from an existing oil discovery drilled in
1996. The Company is required to commit to drill on the block by November 30,
2009, or relinquish the licence at no further cost.


- ENS was awarded licence P1691 for two new blocks in the UK North Sea at 16/1b
and 16/2c in the UKCS 25th Licensing Round by DECC in March 2009. These blocks
are contiguous to ENS's existing North Sea blocks and cement our acreage
position around our primary prospect. The licence requires seismic reprocessing
and interpretation on the blocks over the next two years.




Selected Information
---------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
($'s except weighted average shares)            Dec 31, 2008   Dec 31, 2007
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gas revenue                                          108,001         76,335
Royalties                                            (16,496)       (16,585)
Operating expenses                                   (35,102)       (19,115)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Net gas revenue                                      56,403         40,635
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interest and other income                            317,672        374,764
General and administrative expense                 1,537,808      1,232,441
Net loss and comprehensive loss                   (3,401,081)    (4,941,321)
Loss per share (basic and diluted)                     (0.03)
                                                                      (0.07)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Capital expenditures
 Petroleum and natural gas properties - cash      14,285,031     32,472,009
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cash flows
 Cash flows used in operations                    (1,086,857)    (1,023,540)
 Cash flows used in investing                    (13,597,374)   (29,692,266)
 Cash flows from financing                        12,583,640     42,598,497
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Change in cash and cash equivalents              (2,100,591)    11,882,691
 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of year     15,848,648      3,965,957
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Cash and cash equivalents, end of year           13,748,057     15,848,648
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basic and diluted weighted average number of
 shares outstanding                              119,986,718     65,768,355
----------------------------------------------------------------------------



About Excelsior Energy

Excelsior is an early stage, oil sands company with 58 operated sections in the
Hangingstone and West Surmont areas of the Athabasca Oil Sands Region near Fort
McMurray, Alberta. The Company has developed a proprietary in situ combustion
technology (Combustion Overhead Gravity Drainage "COGD") which has game-changing
potential in the development and recovery of heavy oil and bitumen. An
application for an experimental pilot project to field demonstrate the COGD
technology will be submitted in Q2 2009 with a targeted start up in Q1 2011. In
addition the Company indirectly holds a 100% working interest in UK North Sea
Licences P.1500 and P.1691 covering four part-blocks through its 75% owned
subsidiary ENS Energy Ltd. Excelsior's strategy is to capture oil and gas
appraisal and development opportunities where we can leverage Management's
diverse international operating, heavy oil and field development expertise with
developing technologies to produce oil and gas.


Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Management's assessment
of future plans and operations, expected production levels, operating costs,
capital expenditures, the nature of capital expenditures, methods of financing
capital expenditures, future engineering reports and the timing of increases in
production may constitute forward-looking statements under applicable securities
laws and necessarily involve risks including, without limitation, risks
associated with oil and gas exploration, development, exploitation, production,
marketing and transportation, loss of markets, volatility of commodity prices,
currency fluctuations, imprecision of reserve estimates, environmental risks,
competition from other producers, inability to retain drilling rigs and other
services, incorrect assessment of the value of acquisitions, failure to realize
the anticipated benefits of acquisitions, delays resulting from or inability to
obtain required regulatory approvals and ability to access sufficient capital
from internal and external sources. As a consequence, the Company's actual
results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the
forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of
factors is not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other factors
that could effect the Company's operations and financial results are included in
reports on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and may be
accessed through the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com). Furthermore, the forward
looking statements contained in this press release are made as at the date of
this press release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update
publicly or to revise any of the included forward looking statements, whether as
a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be
required by applicable securities laws.

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