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To: Dennis Roth who wrote (1034)	11/14/2007 6:46:34 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

South African coal major may ink pact with Mahanadi Coalfields 14 Nov, 2007, 0634 hrs IST,Debjoy Sengupta , TNN economictimes.indiatimes.com KOLKATA: South Africa’s $15-billion Sasol and the world’s largest producer of coal-to-oil (CTL) has entered into talks with Coal India subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) for setting up a minimum Rs 3,000-crore project with coal supplied from either IB valley or Talcher in Orissa. The project will require a minimum of 20 million tonnes of coal per year that will be converted into petroleum. The move is significant as global oil prices are hovering at roughly $100 per barrel. Putting aside capital costs for a moment, at coal prices of $10 a tonne, feedstock costs for such a CTL plant would work out at around $5 per barrel. Other direct operating costs would then add around $15 a barrel, to take non-capital costs to around $20 a barrel vis-à-vis current petrol prices. Confirming the development, senior executives at Coal India told ET: “Officials from Sasol met top MCL officials during the first week of November to discuss possibilities of setting up a CTL project near one of the mines of MCL. It will have to be from the open cast mines either at IB valley or at Talcher”. Being the country’s coal mining monopoly, Sasol had met CIL officials early last year for preliminary discussions but talks did not advance. “Now after about 20 months, Sasol officials have approached MCL directly this time as it is one of the CIL subsidiary, which is favourably placed to supply the required 20 million tonnes of coal every year,” the CIL executive said. The company, which commercialised the CTL process, is believed to be conducting a feasibility study on a proposed 80,000 barrels a day plant and is seeking firm assurance from Delhi on the allocation of coal blocks for the purpose. CTL projects can only be feasible if Sasol can secure up to 10 billion tonnes of coal required to feed its plant over its 25th-year life. Incidentally, of the 253 billion tonnes of total Indian coal reserves estimated by the Geological Survey of India (GSA), Orissa accounts for 60.98 billion tonnes or 24.60%. The largest coalfields are also located at Talcher and IB valley. The CIL executive, however, said the project proposal will eventually be forwarded to CIL and a technical evaluation needs to be done. “Details of the project such as formation of a joint venture, shareholding pattern, size of the projects and its exact locations all needs to be worked out,” he added. Interestingly, Sasol is contemplating investments of $6-8 billion in India. The company is currently negotiating the construction of at least two coal-to-liquids plants in China. It is in talks with several authorities in India, including the Planning Commission, ministries of coal and petroleum and natural gas. In South Africa, Sasol currently converts some 45 million tonnes of coal a year and 200 million cubic feet of gas a day to produce around 160,000 barrels of liquid fuel products daily. It also separately refines 108,000 barrels of crude oil a day. According to reports, it intends to more than double its capacity in the long term, and with the bulk produced offshore, India is on its list of favoured destinations.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (1034)	12/7/2007 5:01:59 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (9) \| Respond to of 1740

Tatas seek coal blocks for generating crude 8 Dec 2007, 0114 hrs IST,Sanjay Dutta,TNN timesofindia.indiatimes.com NEW DELHI: The Tata Group has sought access to 30 million tonnes of black diamond a year for producing three million barrels of oil and 1,500 mw of power from a CTL (coal-to-liquid) project it proposes to set up in joint venture with South African oil firm Sasol, a pioneer in the field. Tata Group has an understanding with Sasol, the world’s largest producer of oil from coal. The latter is reported to be willing to pump in up to $6 billion in the project that will be the first of its kind in India. At a meeting with executives handling the project on Tuesday, the coal ministry sought more clarity on the project and asked the companies to establish the economics. The Planning Commission too had earlier raised some points over the economics of the project. Government officials told the company executives that the demand for access to coal acreages needs to be studied further to see from where allocations can be made, if at all. The Tata Group and Sasol have an understanding on the project and the combine wants the government to make the CTL unit eligible for captive mining. This can be done by notifying the proposed CTL unit as an end-user. The combine has also sought allocation of coal acreages with a total of 1.5-2 billion tonnes of reserves that are to be dedicated to the project. Executives related to the CTL plan project an annual saving of over $25 billion to the exchequer in crude import substitution if it is allowed to be set up. They also say the technology is suitable for India which has the fourth-largest coal reserves in the world. Most of the reserves, however, have high ash content and need to be processed for use in power and steel plants. Initially, the firms had talked about a CTL plant with a capacity of producing 80,000 barrels a day from coal. A plant of such a capacity is estimated to consume about 60,000 tonnes of coal per day.