It HAS to be with a view to getting a rig... Algae Biodiesel...

It HAS to be with a view to getting a rig...

Algae Biodiesel production would be several years off at best case. They are also competing with Smorgon family for access to flue gas from Coal - Fired power plants. Smorgon have bought the Australian license for a competing biodiesel from algae technology from Greenfuel technologies - www.greenfuelonline.com which from my research a while back was the company closest to commercialising the technology.

Biodiesel algae is grown in large ponds (they're looking at several HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of ACRES), all requiring volumes of fresh water (from what I understand, the strains of Algae they use don't grow in salt water)... don't know if anyone's noticed the drought we're having... probably rules Queensland out...

Algae Biodiesel is a very, very interesting technology with tons of potential, but quite a lot of risk - process of harvesting, extraction has not yet been proven at commercial scale - also likely to involve truly massive cap ex to get it up and running... plus negotiating access to exhaust gas with power plants...

For this to be worthwhile in the near future, we need to secure a rig out of the deal post haste, and FINALLY DRILL STITCH!!! Santos seem to have lost interest, or have other priorities... rig availability was always going to be the clincher with this well.