comfortable., page-40

Ravi old chap,
it is about time that it should be realised that it was not the coal as in lumps of solid black stuff that was sold. what was sold was the mining leases which confer the right to mine and extract coal if the leases are kept in good standing. you will note that i wrote mine and extract. underground gasification and production of the gas is conducted under the terms of the petroleum lease, at least in south australia and i suspect in the territory also. since central still have the petroleum leases and the coal mostly underlies these, remember it was first discovered as a result of oil drilling, the option to start up ucg remains. though from the immaturity of the technology, the regulatory hurdles,the striking lack of examples of commercial success plus the hundreds of millions needed to even prototype, the lack of enthusiasm on centrals part is fairly understandable. perhaps with this insight one can be spared the endless whinging grieving and hand wringing on this forum and another about the so called giveaway coal sale.
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