Company Sells Kern County Reneu Rights

First International Resource Marketing Inc., whose operations are based in Camarillo, has sold the Kern County rights to its Reneu soil-decontamination and oil-recovery process for $1.9 million. Reneu is a liquid that is said to separate toxic waste from soil and water.

The rights were sold in an auction last week in Bakersfield, said William Wismann, First International’s chairman and chief executive.

Wismann said the buyer, a group of unidentified foreign investors, will use the process in enhanced oil-recovery and environmental projects.

“Thirteen potential bidders showed up, but actually there were only four active bidders,” Wismann said.

In another auction, Wismann said investor Michael Kishner paid $65,000 for the right to use the process in northern Los Angeles County. “There’s been much less oil field activity there than in Kern County,” Wismann said, referring to the lower price.

Wismann said First International also plans to sell the rights to use the process in Louisiana and Texas.

In another development, Gennady Moshkovich, First International’s president, said government agencies and private groups in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union have expressed an interest in forming joint ventures to use Reneu in those areas.

Wismann said First International is hiring employees at both its research-and-development headquarters in Camarillo and its corporate office in Century City. The company is privately held but will probably try to go public within a year, he said.