Sulphco posts loss for first half

Sulphco Inc.

said last week it's got enough capital to hang on for the next year even though it lost $4.7 million and didn't record any sales in the first half of this year.

The 17 employees of the Sparks-based company are developing a technology to remove sulfur from crude oil.

Sulphco, which is publicly held, has recorded losses of $27 million since its inception in 1999.

On June 30, the company said it had $7.5 million in cash, and its expenses were running $400,000 a month.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sulphco said testing of its system has been undertaken at ChevronTexaco refinery at Richmond, Calif.

Those tests wrapped up July, and Sulphco said it doesn't know whether its deal with the giant oil company will go any further.

It's also struck a deal to sell a pilot plant to a South Korean company, OIL-SC, for $1 million.

Sulphco expects to deliver that unit this month.

In the meantime, the company said it has borrowed $500,000 from its chairman, Rudolf Gunnermann, and borrowed another $500,000 from his sister-in-law.