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To: straight life who wrote (45248)	3/22/2006 1:50:29 PM
From: - with a K	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 118717

Interesting. Bloomberg has 4 updates to this story but none of them are now not readable. Maybe SSL didn't know of the plans next month! Here's the story from a South African news source, which includes a quote from the SSL spokesman yesterday. Bumi to ask Sasol to build $3bn fuel plant March 22, 2006 Johannesburg - PT Bumi Resources, Indonesia's second-largest publicly traded resources company, will start talks with Sasol to build a proposed plant in Sumatra for as much as $3 billion (R19.02 billion) to produce diesel from coal. "Next month we will hold talks with Sasol," Jakarta-based Bumi's President-Director Ari Hudaya said on Tuesday in an interview. The company, which has bought a new mine to supply a plant, also will hold talks with Kobe Steel, Japan's fourth-largest steelmaker, because it has coal liquefaction technology, he said. Near record crude oil prices makes turning coal into diesel more profitable and prompted Bumi last week to sell its two coal mines for $3.2 billion to help fund a switch in production. Sasol is the world's biggest producer of liquid fuel-from-coal and is looking to boost output outside South Africa. "I am not sure if Bumi has the capability to make such a move to an energy company and if they can successfully implement it," said Cholis Baidowi, whose $11-million TRIM Kapital is Indonesia's best-performing stock fund over the past 12 months, and includes Bumi shares. "The question is over the technology," Baidowi said. Sasol, using technology invented by German scientists in 1923 and used in World War II, converts coal or gas to motor fuel at its Sasolburg and Secunda plants in South Africa. It is building gas-to-fuel plants in Qatar and Nigeria and may build more processing facilities in China, the US and India. Sasol spokesman in Johannesburg Johann Van Rheede said on Tuesday "there is interest from Indonesia at this stage". He would not comment directly on any talks. Gary Tsuchida, a spokesman for Kobe Steel in Tokyo, said by telephone that the company hasn't been approached by Bumi. Kobe Steel has coal-to-fuel technology but it hasn't been applied commercially, he said. - Bloomberg busrep.co.za