Coal To Liquids In South Australia  

In my coal to liquids in Australia post a few months ago I rated the chances of a development in northern South Australia as low. The SMH has a report today that the chances have improved greatly with Chinese firm CNOOC indicating an interest in the project - Chinese oil firm targets coal-to-liquids. Just what SA needs - another coal fired power plant...

A subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil giant has thrown its weight behind an ambitious, $3 billion coal-to-liquids (CTL) project planned for South Australia.

Australia-focused energy minnow Altona Resources Plc, which is listed on London's Alternative Investment Market, has signed an in-principle agreement with CNOOC (Beijing) Energy Investment Co Ltd to cooperate in the development of Altona's Arckaringa project in SA. The project includes a 10 million barrel per year open cut mine and a 560 megawatt power plant.

Interest in CTL, which involves converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons, is growing amid concerns about "peak oil". ...

He said the project would provide a major new source of base load power and diesel to SA, "which has a significant looming power deficiency and currently imports all of its distillate requirements".