who has the most coal., page-7

I big boys don't yet believe this technology will be reliable on a large scale. This reflects their general conservatism and their experience with very large projects and the hurdles faced to make them work tehnically and commercially. On the other hand the small companies are trying to innovate like mad and bring this technology into the mainstream. If they demonstrate that UCG can be applied on large scales, then the big boys will certainly jump into this sector. That is guaranteed. We are seeing some early signs of this as intermediate sized companies (which are somewhat less risk averse than their bigger cousins) are taking some partnering positions and small equity stakes - eg IPL in MEE. If the trial burns of CXY and so forth are successful then the big boys will move in. They will attempt to buy out the small players which have the best technical capability and the best technology that suits their desired business model (products) from syngas.