Line in Chinese deal to tap gas

Australian
Friday 12/9/2008 Page: 19

EMERGING clean fuel producer Linc Energy has launched into the Chinese market, where it plans to use its gas and coal technologies to set up commercial projects. The gas-to-liquids hopeful has joined forces with its new Chinese partner, Xinwen Mining Group, to develop underground coal gasification (UCG) and gas to liquids (GTL) projects in the Yining mining area. The move follows an announcement last week that Xinwen had bought Linc's Teresa coal exploration permits in Queensland's Bowen Basin for $1.5 billion.

Linc government and environment affairs general manager Justyn Peters said the company was also in talks with other Chinese miners interested in its UCG and GTL technologies. "It is good news that Australia is exporting clean coat technology to China. Xinwen came to our demonstration plant in Chinchilla and were gobsmacked," Mr Peters said. Under the deal, the companies have agreed to negotiate a formal agreement to form a joint stock company to develop UCG fields to produce gas for transport directly to Shanghai.

It will also provide the feedstock for a GTL facility to produce liquids that will be transported by pipeline to the Dushanzi oil refinery. Xinwen already has government approval for UCG, which means that once commercial terms are finalised, the joint venture partners can move directly into commercialisation and start tapping stranded coal in China. Mr Peters said dealing in energy-hungry China had been a straightforward process and the country was supportive of the technology.

"There has already been known UCG fields in China and they know what the technology can do and know it works, but wanted to combine that with the GTL technology," he said. "In China and India, the governments' energy policies have UCG as a leg." Xinwen's purchase of the Queensland coat permits still needs approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board, which has been under the spotlight this year with China's focus on Australia's booming resources sector.

In July, Treasurer Wayne Swan said he had received $30 billion worth of Chinese foreign investment proposals since the previous November, and that applications would be screened to see if they were consistent with Australia's national interests. But Mr Peters said there had been no resistance from China for the Australian company's interest because it was a joint venture. "The Government in China is completely open to it and foreign companies in joint ventures in China just need to take a minority interest because natural resources are owned by the state," he said. The push into China could see Line's first commercial GTL plant operated out of the Asian region, upstaging its flagship project in Australia.

The Queensland-based company is close to finalising the pilot plant at Chinchilla to prove that gas produced through UCG can be converted into products such as diesel and aviation fuel. It then plans to build a commercial plant at the site, but the move into China could progress faster, with final approvals stilt needed in Australia. Linc's stock has jumped substantially following a week of big announcements, closing yesterday at $4.15, valuing managing director Peter Bond's 51 per cent holding which he is free to trade at $841 million.