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Old 12-18-2012, 12:43 AM
Sparty Sparty is offline
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Default $14 Billion GTL plant for Louisiana

"Sasol executives say the company believes so strongly in the promise of GTL technology that this month, it announced plans to spend up to $14 billion to build the first gas-to-liquids plant in the United States, in Louisiana, supported by more than $2 billion in state incentives. A shale drilling boom in that region in the last five years has produced a glut of cheap gas, and the executives say Sasol can tap that supply to make diesel and other refined products at competitive prices."

?We believe the planets are aligned for G.T.L.,? Mr. Louw said during a recent tour of the Oryx plant. ?Other players ? much bigger players ? will follow.? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/business/energy-environment/sasol-betting-big-on-gas-to-liquid-plant-in-us.html

And this is where it gets very interesting for Australia. We have several companies that have been front runners in the UCG-GTL space and perhaps even more importantly we have two companies that have proven UCG-GTL suitable coal resources. See CTP and LNC

That we won't use our Coal Seam Methane for liquid fuel production seems a given as we are going to struggle to get enough gas to drive the LNG projects currently being/starting to be built.

So the idea of using Underground Coal Gasification as the GAS source is most likely coming into focus. And Linc Energy (LNC) already has the working technology for UCG-GTL that makes ultra-clean diesel. CTP on the other hand has a couple of trillion tons of UCG likely coal in a remote and arid zone. To put it all into perspective Coal Seam Methane extraction uses around 5% of the available energy whereas UCG uses/extracts ~95% and to be able to do so far away from farming land and well below aquifers makes it a no-brainer.

 

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