positive media for the cat, page-4

Highwayman

Another good find ... thanks.

Staying with your "risks" theme, I have been reflecting on the recent Mongolian project announcement and just how much closer basic UCG commercialisation is becoming ... particularly for Cougar.

We also had confirmed in that announcement that Wandoan is being configured for electricity, methane and petrochemicals, which no doubt could include syngas to diesel.

We know that LNC considers a 20,000 barrel per day diesel plant to be feasible. We know that any methane produced from Wandoan sygnas could feasibly end up being exported as LNG from Gladstone.

In no am I way looking to belittle Kingaroy residents concerns about Cougar's impending UCG powergen project and perceived risks to groundwater however small they may be and ditto re the Qld Govt delaying UCG development pending studies into potential contamination risks.

If governments want to get really serious about risks, look no further than the deep water oil well disaster unfolding in the US Gulf at present. That accident is an unmitigated environmental disaster that may yet permit oil to spill for another 2-3 months or more. Already a pall is cast over global deepwater oil production and a lot of planned and needed future deep water oil production capacity is now being seriously questioned.

If UCG does progress to produce diesl from syngas, imo the risks are minute compared to a gushing broken oil well 1.5km below the ocean surface. We know that a ucg syngas field can be shut down almost at will ... hell, even a buckled bit of well casing does the trick (akka Kingaroy lol).

The risks associated with UCG should be considered in context to comparative risks associated with other scalable energy productions and not in isolation. Incumbent contamination risks associated with dirty bown coal power stations and conventional oil and gas production should be considered as "opportunity risks" in any UCG risk analysis.

The world cant afford too many more US Gulf scale oil contamination disasters, so imo it is actually irresponsible not to consider viable, quite likely lower risk energy options like UCG.

Dex