Ann: 2012 Annual Report , page-6

speculator -yet another reason to stay in beach!

i will post an article from bloomberg on gas to liquids - i have tried several times to get some debate on the bpt threads about alternative uses for the huge amount of gas we (bpt and oz )are likely to have.

we all know gas to liquids possible but i thought you had to spend billions!! this article shows a lot of promise for 100's of millions!:


“It’s going to happen in North America,” Roy Lipski, chief executive officer of Oxford, England-based Oxford Catalysts, said in an interview. Turning gas into liquid fuels “is the flip-side of the coin to fracking for shale gas, because what are you going to do with all the gas?”
Shell’s Pearl

So-called gas-to-liquids technology has been proven on a larger scale, primarily at Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA)’s plant in Qatar. Smaller production typically is targeted for areas producing gas that’s “stranded,” or unserved by pipelines. The economics depend on the feedstock staying relatively cheap.

While U.S. natural gas prices are currently about $3.50 per million British thermal units, the futures curve shows prices rising to more than $6 per mmBtu during the next 10 years. Every $1 increase in the price of gas boosts the cost of producing a barrel of diesel by $9, Oxford Catalysts said.

Oxford Catalysts can produce a barrel of premium diesel for $66, or $1.57 a gallon, using gas at $4 per thousand standard cubic feet ($3.89 per mmBtu) at plants with a capacity of just 1,500 barrels a day. The unprofitable technology developer said a plant that size can be built for about $150 million and would last for 20 years.

It costs about $124 a barrel, or $2.95 a gallon, to make premium diesel from oil, the company estimated. The U.S. average price for diesel at the pump is about $4.12 a gallon.
Messerschmitt Fuel

Oxford Catalysts is planning a factory in Pennsylvania, near the Marcellus Shale, that may go into production by the end of 2014, using a process known as Fischer-Tropsch after the German scientists who developed it in the 1920s. Germany commercialized the process in the 1930s to manufacture liquid fuel from domestic coal amid oil shortages before and during World War II. ..."

I live in se qld and you wouldnt believe the amount of traffic on the warrego highway - and a reasonable amount of trucks is fuel tankers! wouldnt it be great to have a refinery at Roma , Emerald , Goondiwindi, Mackay etc to save all that carting!!the volume is already huge for farming and general transport but with the new mines it increases exponentially - peabodies relatively small Macalister mine uses nearly two b doubles of fuel a day!

anyway enough of that - anyone know of any other value adding opportunities for gas which do not need a multi billion dollar chemical plant! I know we have fertliser, explosives (Incitec and moranbah opening now ) and is ethylene a possibility???

Seems like more major gas electricity power plants may be overlooked for while!