Really hard to figure out the best way to invest in UCG. I...

Really hard to figure out the best way to invest in UCG. I believe UCG is going to be huge. But no company has a lock on the UCG technology - or even a half decent patent position. And there are stranded deep coal deposits all over the place.

So it is not clear at all to me what advantages Carbon or Linc or Cougar have in the long run. Is anybody going to be interested in these tiny underfunded companies when the big boys like Peabody, etc get involved? Already Sasol is doing a UCG project.

I am leaning toward going with the companies that own the stranded coal deposits. Like Central Petroleum, and Liberty maybe. Linc has some huge land positions in SA and the PRB in US, but Linc seems way too expensive - market cap of $1 billion and zero revenue?

The only problem with going with the coal resource companies is that they might take a big hit when the Australian CSG bubble bursts.

Really cannot understand this Australian CSG craze. CBM (as we call it in the US) is not taking off here in the same way at all. It requires tons of infrastructure. Lot of small wells and collection systems. Then you need all the equipment for dewatering and treating and disposing the water pumped out. Environmentalists hate CBM.