The Game Changer is the recent successful combination of the two processes by a small Australian company, Linc Energy, that has lead to previously stranded coal, either too deep or too remote to mine economically, being now both economically viable and environmentally friendly for energy extraction, with one ton of coal producing between 1.5 - 2 barrels of oil equivalent.
LINC Energy ASX:LNC an underground coal gasification company that has demonstrated that coal can be burnt underground and the resultant gas, SYNGAS, can be converted to a range of ultra-clean liquid fuel products including diesel and kerosene. The process is named UCG-GTL meaning Underground Coal Gasification Gas to Liquids. Both technologies have a long and successful history. LNC's UCG project has been running for 10 years and its UCG-GTL project for 3 years.
Linc Energy have several billion tons of UCG suitable coal (Arckaringa, South Australia) and a suite of projects around the world. Moreover LNC's Arckaringa coal is both deep and in a dry arid region of Australia far away from agriculture.
Linc Energy is currently developing a cookie cutter design for UCG-GTL plants designed to produce 20,000 B.O.E per day and is currently building a 20,000 BOE per day plant in South Australia.
Another exciting, much lesser known, emerging UCG play is Central Petroleum ASX: CTP who have around a trillion tons of proven UCG suitable coal in the even more remote, dry and arid and very sparsely populated Perdika Region that just happens to have a railway line stretching from Adelaide to Darwin nearby. The railway gives them access to S E Asia via the Port of Darwin and the Australian domestic market via Adelaide. CTP have a long term interest in both UCG and above ground coal gasification and the conversion of the resultant Syngas to liquid fuels and fertilizers.
While LINC has a respectable market cap of $890m and a lot of cash, Central Petroleum has over a trillion tons of coal, approx. 250,000 sq kms of unexplored coal and oil prospective basins across central Australia and a market cap of just on $58m and about $20m cash making CTP one of Australia's best speculative investments.
If LNC and CTP were to team up Australia would rapidly become both a major oil exporter and liquid fuel independent.
(I hold LNC and CTP)
For more information about UCG and GTL please see www.ucg-gtl.com.
LINC Energy ASX:LNC an underground coal gasification company that has demonstrated that coal can be burnt underground and the resultant gas, SYNGAS, can be converted to a range of ultra-clean liquid fuel products including diesel and kerosene. The process is named UCG-GTL meaning Underground Coal Gasification Gas to Liquids. Both technologies have a long and successful history. LNC's UCG project has been running for 10 years and its UCG-GTL project for 3 years.
Linc Energy have several billion tons of UCG suitable coal (Arckaringa, South Australia) and a suite of projects around the world. Moreover LNC's Arckaringa coal is both deep and in a dry arid region of Australia far away from agriculture.
Linc Energy is currently developing a cookie cutter design for UCG-GTL plants designed to produce 20,000 B.O.E per day and is currently building a 20,000 BOE per day plant in South Australia.
Another exciting, much lesser known, emerging UCG play is Central Petroleum ASX: CTP who have around a trillion tons of proven UCG suitable coal in the even more remote, dry and arid and very sparsely populated Perdika Region that just happens to have a railway line stretching from Adelaide to Darwin nearby. The railway gives them access to S E Asia via the Port of Darwin and the Australian domestic market via Adelaide. CTP have a long term interest in both UCG and above ground coal gasification and the conversion of the resultant Syngas to liquid fuels and fertilizers.
While LINC has a respectable market cap of $890m and a lot of cash, Central Petroleum has over a trillion tons of coal, approx. 250,000 sq kms of unexplored coal and oil prospective basins across central Australia and a market cap of just on $58m and about $20m cash making CTP one of Australia's best speculative investments.
If LNC and CTP were to team up Australia would rapidly become both a major oil exporter and liquid fuel independent.
(I hold LNC and CTP)
For more information about UCG and GTL please see www.ucg-gtl.com.