estimates & reserve potential, page-25

Hi Dex

Just revisited y'r post # 4135909. U make some valid points, which some of us are well aware of, with CTP. The way things stand at the moment with CTP, its all at Resource stage. Hence the need to drill to move from resource to reserves stage. There are lots of questions that need 2b addressed going fwd.

Last year's drilling program didnt quite answer all the questions, what it did thou' was indicate the thickness & other inherent properties of the Purni Coal Seams in the Pedirka basin in NT.

With the coal seam drilling, this time around, CTP are allowing BG-QGC to handle the shallow drilling & have said this in their recent drilling announcements.

The plan from a CSG perspective would b very simple, drill those shallow wells, most importantly core all of them. Last time around, they only drilled CBM93001 & the core barrel wasn't even sealed properly!! We don't know if there's any dewatering involved yet. So there are lots of questions that need 2b answered.

Anyway, right now, all we know there's 1.175 TT of coal in the ground, which is absolutely critical & is not hot air.

CTP need to look at some way of exploiting it. IMO, future approach/ development could well b better dictated by their BG alliance. In their inhouse studies, CTP have done a pre-feasibility study & have pondered over GTL & UCG as options.

There's a 101 page report from June '08, that u could skim thro' this on their website. In it, they've considered various scenarios of having a 50000+ bpd of GTL plant etc. This should answer some of y'r questions, not all though.

Few months back, there was a delegation from Jogmec in Darwin, looking at a GTL plant option in Central Australia. Jogmec have a plant at Hokkaido (Japan) & thats where CTP's massive acreage come in. CTP did a preso for them, I believe.

CTP have also quoted figures from Shell Qatar's largest GTL plant (140000 bbls/day). IMO, they dont know which way to take this boat as they dont have inhouse expertise & a trifecta of possibilities (i.e CSG, GTL, UCG).

Fortunately for them, developments at Linc, CNX & CXY have all come at the right time. No wonder, BG will have a whinge with the QLD govt on the UCG issue, which leads me to believe will they do the same in NT should Jogmec b interested in funding/ developing a GTL plant?

I dont know the answers yet, only time will tell what CTP ends up developing, a UCG pilot trial facility or a GTL plant. I'd b tempted for the later as the gas breakdown during drilling had a high proportion of C2, C3.

Anyway, here are couple of interesting links on GTL, purely from a research perspective (u already know more about Linc)

Shell's GTL at Bintulu in Malaysia

Sasol Chevron (South Africa)

cheers