Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

LNC - Linc Energy

I liked PBs “watch this space” with regards to the possibility of future power generation, just made me wonder if he has been talking with big Clive?
 
Did anyone see the article in Fin Review on Friday? I heard about it only but apparently it was front page. It starts....

"Guidelines to leave no reason for foreign fear"

The federal government's move to establish new limits on foreign investment in the resources sector has drawn a mixed reaction and uncertainty about how rigidly the new approach will be applied.


I havent read the whole article (I havent subscribed to Fin Review) but apparently it talks about the Government changing laws to prevent foreign companies owning more than 49% of resource assets.

If this is true, will these have serious implications for Linc with respect to who can buy the coal tenements? If the rules suddenly change, Linc might have to diversify into open cut coal mines with a partner!!!

I remind you all that I am a complete novice with a small holding only.
 
I think the surprise factor is taken out of this stock. It's like the boy who cried wolf, and PB has cried sale for the last year or so.

Maybe the institutions will accumulate when more certaintly is made public to the market and not just some quote from the Newspaper.

I like to compare Linc with other companies in the market. Two come to mind. maybe others here can think of some other sales

NHC which sold itls New Saraji coal assets for 2.45B. It's sp went from $1.50 or so to $5. It has 800m shares listed.

AJL whcih sold its Gloucester basin CSG assets from 370M. It's shares went from $3-$5. It only has 66M shares listed.

LNC after its capital raising has 65M in cash. It has 460M shares listed.
Assuming the sale generates 1B-1.5B I see it being capped to below $3, because it still is essentially a producer of a non mainstream product. Its UGC technology has not won it any big contracts hence it does not have stable earnings. Long term I don't know what the price would be. That depends on the popularity of UCG.

My plan is to accumulate in bits and pieces under $2 then pounce when the sale is final. Maybe then exit with a profit and leave a core holding for the future in case it goes beyond $3.

In comparison with New Saraji coal assets (700m tons) bought by BHP in 2.45B last year, total three coal resource of LNC is more enormous (emerald:852m,Galilee:5.0-5.5b ,Pentland:266m). So do you think what the reasonable price of three assets are? Maybe $5b is a option.
 
BHP would have to be the best option for Linc if they have indeed put in a bid. No need for FIRB approval,and they are well cashed up and on the acquisition trail as well. Interesting times ahead for LNC
 
Short selling over the last couple of days has pushed the price down to 1.60 and as a result triggered off many stops. Over a million shares were traded in a single sale after 4.30pm yesterday... :eek:
http://www.asx.com.au/data/Shortsell.txt ;)

9.30pm this Thursday
Peter Bond will be on Channel 9's new show "The Secret Millionaire" :p:
 
Short selling over the last couple of days has pushed the price down to 1.60 and as a result triggered off many stops. Over a million shares were traded in a single sale after 4.30pm yesterday... :eek:
http://www.asx.com.au/data/Shortsell.txt ;)

9.30pm this Thursday
Peter Bond will be on Channel 9's new show "The Secret Millionaire" :p:
Market is skeptical about the news in Sep 17 because it disppointed them for several times. PB has said it will upon 5 weeks that annoncement of coal sale will released. There is two weeks left and I am just waiting .
 
Hi SUNYA2006

How do you know he said 5 weeks?

I am hopiong to catch the tv interview tommorrow night to see if there are any more clues...
 
Hi SUNYA2006

How do you know he said 5 weeks?

I am hopiong to catch the tv interview tommorrow night to see if there are any more clues...
Article in The Australian today states in part-

Mr Bond told The Australian yesterday the sale was a two-tier process, which included the bidder's statement before moving into detailed negotiations.

"We are just concluding the first bidder's statement, where we have had a number of good bids on the coal assets, and we are moving into the second phase, where we get into the detailed negotiations," he said.

And again-

Mr Bond said news flow around the sale of the assets had always been a strong catalyst for the stock and the company.

"We are aware of that and that is why we are working hard to fulfil the outcome," he said, adding it was likely to be up to five weeks before an announcement was made.

"I can't help what happened with the global financial crisis and I can't help what happened with China. I know what is happening in reality and I know (the asset sale) is going to happen."

The chief executive said he was happy to let the UBS process run.

"It's a good strong process and I'm content to see it roll out over the next few weeks.

"It was always going to be a three to four-month process and it is headed in the right direction."

Link- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...005200,00.html
 
Article in The Australian today states in part-

Mr Bond told The Australian yesterday the sale was a two-tier process, which included the bidder's statement before moving into detailed negotiations.

"We are just concluding the first bidder's statement, where we have had a number of good bids on the coal assets, and we are moving into the second phase, where we get into the detailed negotiations," he said.

And again-

Mr Bond said news flow around the sale of the assets had always been a strong catalyst for the stock and the company.

"We are aware of that and that is why we are working hard to fulfil the outcome," he said, adding it was likely to be up to five weeks before an announcement was made.

"I can't help what happened with the global financial crisis and I can't help what happened with China. I know what is happening in reality and I know (the asset sale) is going to happen."

The chief executive said he was happy to let the UBS process run.

"It's a good strong process and I'm content to see it roll out over the next few weeks.

"It was always going to be a three to four-month process and it is headed in the right direction."

Link- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...005200,00.html

The above link to the article in The Australian appears to be broken. To avoid any confusion, the article was in The Australian on 18 Sept - refer my post # 1000 on 18 Sept.

PB did say UP TO FIVE WEEKS but, as others have said, his statements as to likely dates for significant announcements have been overly optimistic on a number of occasions.
 
http://www.casperjournal.com/articles/2009/10/14/news/news50.txt (and further below)

"Mining accesses only five percent of coal resources, while 95 percent is up to 5,000 feet below the surface."


"...adapting technologies used in Australia to the Powder River Basin..."

"The energy we're talking about is just absolutely immense," said John Wold, CEO and chairman of Gas Tech, Inc. "The coal resources in that area have an energy equivalent that is more than the energy equivalent in all of the known world oil and gas."

"The BP Statistical review of World Energy predicts that oil will run out within decades and gas will not last the century at present rates of use. But the U.S. alone may have enough coal for more than 200 years."

"In September 2009, Linc Energy acquired 92,059 acres of GasTech Inc coal tenements based in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming in the United States. This acquisition is part of Linc Energy’s strategic global expansion program to provide coal-rich countries with cleaner energy solutions."
http://www.lincenergy.com.au/powderriver.php



Gas Tech on cutting edge of coal energy
http://www.casperjournal.com/articles/2009/10/14/news/news50.txt

by Elysia Conner
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 2:50 PM MDT

Mining barely scratches the surface of the world's coal resources, especially in Wyoming. Converting coal to gas far beneath the surface has proven cheaper, cleaner and safer than other existing methods of coal energy production, according to reports of an Australian underground coal gasification project.

That company, Linc Energy of Australia, considered the world leader in this new technology and Gas Tech, Inc., based in downtown Casper will begin a demonstration operation in the Powder River Basin within two and a half years.



They currently are working on adapting technologies used in Australia to the Powder River Basin.

"The energy we're talking about is just absolutely immense," said John Wold, CEO and chairman of Gas Tech, Inc. "The coal resources in that area have an energy equivalent that is more than the energy equivalent in all of the known world oil and gas."

"This is just the Powder River Basin; this doesn't include what you may have down in South Western Wyoming and South Central Wyoming and so forth."

Gas Tech gained a coal resource leasehold in excess of 20 billion tons of coal buried beneath state owned land in the Powder River Basin, 70 miles north of Casper. Linc Energy acquired seven billion tons of the coal.


Wold became an independent oil and gas producer in 1950 with Wold Oil and Gas, now headed by his sons, Peter and Jack. His career includes heading companies in Wyoming's major minerals: oil, gas, coal, soda ash and uranium.

It is this last that he sees as the future of energy.



While coal is abundant now, fossil fuels are finite and will run out. Wold believes nuclear power is the most feasible replacement.

The BP Statistical review of World Energy predicts that oil will run out within decades and gas will not last the century at present rates of use. But the U.S. alone may have enough coal for more than 200 years.

But you have to go deep to get it. Mining accesses only five percent of coal resources, while 95 percent is up to 5,000 feet below the surface.

"That makes coals the richest fossil fuel in the world, with the biggest reserves." Wold said. "And 95 percent of it is not being used!"

To his knowledge, Gas Tech's is the only underground coal gasification program gong on in the world that is 100 percent financed privately.

All of the others, Wold said, are leaning entirely on governmental subsidies of one sort or another.

One advantage of that is the speed that allows. Some UCG projects are in the planning stages, while Gas Tech is the only UCG program actively underway in the United States.

"We think that this will be the first significant demonstration of UCG technology in America," Wold said, "and could lead to the first commercial adaptation for electric power or coal-to-liquid results."

The electric power technology is proven although the FischernTropsch process to yield liquid fuels "is a trickier situation," according to Wold.

Wold’s long-term goal is multi-billion dollar energy company investments and "clean coal; some underground coal gasification which can be yielding a very significant percentage of the electrical power consumed in the United States."

Past and future of UGC

Before World War II, Russians were first to gasify coal underground for commercial use. Two of the in-seam gasification projects still are in use. The United Kingdom carried out earlier pursuits on a smaller scale.

UCG technology has not yet been harnessed on a large commercial basis.

"One of the big new developments since World War II," Wold said, "has been the ability that we have developed in the oil and gas industry of drilling horizontal holes so you can link up, underground, two vertical holes."

The second half of the 20th century saw a few more experiments, including three in Wyoming.

In the 1980s, Williams Brothers experimented in Hannah Basin, Gulf Oil in steep coal beds south of Rawlins and Atlantic Richfield had an experimental operation south of Gillette.

Wold remembers when Exxon and other companies were interested in coal as oil was predicted soon to be exhausted.

Gas Tech was the development of coal studies that Wold made in the late 1960s, he said, and turned some 480,000 acres of coal leases in the Powder River Basin to Exxon.

Many major companies bought coal resources, but dropped them when they realized how much oil there as in the Middle East and Africa.

The world is going through another cycle of concern over resources today, Wold said, since we are using it faster than we are finding it.

International interest is growing again and with about 15 programs currently going on in the world.

"We have between a quarter and a third of the total world's coal resources here in the United States," Wold said.

"Those of us who are involved underground coal gasification feel it can give America energy independence."

According the British Petroleum studies, the Powder River Basin has the equivalent of 1.5 trillion barrels of oil equivalent energy in place. The total oil reserves worldwide are about 1.3 billion barrels of oil.

Interest for other energy resources is surging.

"But the fact of the matter is that over 70 percent of world's energy today is coming from oil and gas," Wold said.

Wold's company philosophy is that fossil fuels "will fade out and eventually we'll have to go nuclear."

In the meantime, Gas Tech is interested in "the development of underground coal gasification for generating electricity and for converting coal to liquids such as diesel fuel, gasoline and so forth."

What UCG could mean for Wyoming

"Coal gasification is simply combining the carbon of coal with oxygen," Wold said, with oxygen available from water or air. This currently is done above ground after mining.

In UCG, coal is burned in "a cigar shaped cavity" about 1,000 feet underground, Wold said.

Gas production is greater with deep coal in part due to increased pressures. The Powder River Basin's coal bedding has excellent choices for depth and quality of coal, according to Wold. It also consists of up to 30 percent water, so if surface water is needed it will be minimal.

"We have a fantastic quantity and quality of information of underground coals," Wold said, because of the thousands of wells drilled for coal bed methane and the oil and gas wells in the Powder River Basin.

Major electric power companies could use the energy to generate electricity on a large scale.

"This may be the move that dramatizes the great potential for harnessing those great coal deposits that we have," Wold said.

It would benefit the state, he said, and boost the economy.

"With commercial development, you're talking about some fairly sizable employment activities," Wold said, "equivalent to about what you'd have in refineries today."

That possibility is years away.

"These things move slow," Wold said, "particularly when you're talking about a billion to 2 billion to 3 billion-dollar investment."

Gas Tech is taking it a step at a time and for now plans to show what UCG can do.

"Once it's demonstrated by a prime mover, it could catch fire and you could see a whole bunch of them going in at once."

UCG and the environment

To use coal today, it must be mined, transported and burned and then the ash must be disposed of.

UGC eliminates the need to disturb the land surface, and ash can remain inside the cavities rather than transported.

Present methods tear up land, Wold said. While Mining land is reclaimed, eliminating the need is preferable and less expensive.

"The beautiful part is that there is no more surface disturbance than what you would have in oil and gas," he said.

The major problems in earlier UCG efforts were ground-water contamination and collapsing cavities.

According to Wold, that can be avoided with proper burning and deep enough cavities.

UCG technology may someday be used on coal three to five thousand feet deep, Wold said.

Linc Energy has been successful in eliminating these pitfalls of earlier experiments.

Its project in Chinchilla, Australia produced gas in quantities indicating commercial viability while meeting all government environmental specifications.

After a continuous run from 1999 to 2003, there was no sign of contamination of the closely-monitored groundwater or surface areas and no gas leakage. Subsidence also was not an issue.

Gasification itself combines carbon with hydrogen and oxygen to form methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen...more
 
Story on GTL Jet fuel. LNC's losing the race to commercialisation.




GTL Jet Fuel approved for use in civil aviation
29/09/2009
Shell today welcomed the release by ASTM International of a new specification that fully and unconditionally approves the use of Gas-to-Liquids Kerosene blends for powering commercial aircraft.

The new specification, ASTM D7566 “Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons”, approves jet fuel containing up to 50% GTL Kerosene for use in civil aviation.

The blends will be known as GTL Jet Fuel.

GTL Kerosene is one of five GTL products that will be produced in commercial volumes by the Pearl GTL project, currently under construction by Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The project will produce around one million tonnes of GTL Kerosene per annum, enough to power a typical commercial airliner for half a billon kilometres (equivalent to carrying 250 passengers around the world 4,000 times) when used in a 50% blend to make GTL Jet Fuel.

Construction of Pearl GTL is planned to be complete around the end of 2010 with project ramp-up then taking about 12 months. GTL Kerosene is planned to be available from 2012.

The publication of the specification follows two years’ research and discussion by the ASTM specification group, a consensus body consisting of producers, equipment manufacturers and consumers of aviation fuel.

Shell is also working as part of a consortium with Airbus, Qatar Airways, Qatar Fuel Company (WOQOD), Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Science & Technology Park and Rolls-Royce to research the potential benefits of using GTL Jet Fuel in aviation engines. GTL Jet Fuel has lower emissions of particulates and other pollutants that affect local air quality. GTL Jet Fuel also has a slightly higher energy density per kilogram than oil-derived kerosene, meaning that a lower weight of fuel may be required for each kilometre flown. The consortium is working to quantify this potential fuel saving amongst other work.

Andy Brown, Shell’s Executive Vice President Qatar and Managing Director of the Pearl GTL project said: “I believe GTL Jet Fuel’s qualities, including its potential to reduce pollution around airports and allow airplanes to carry a slightly lighter fuel payload, will make it attractive to airlines and airport authorities. For Qatar, GTL provides the opportunity to market its natural gas in diverse markets currently supplied by oil products. Today’s approval opens up commercial aviation as another of these markets, helping to maximise the value Qatar can generate from its natural resources.”

Pearl GTL will convert natural gas into liquid fuels, lubricants and chemical feedstocks. In addition to GTL Kerosene, Pearl GTL will produce: GTL Gasoil, a diesel type fuel; GTL Base Oils, which are used to manufacture high quality lubricants; GTL Normal Paraffin, which is used in the production of detergents; and GTL Naphtha, a feedstock for plastics products
 
For anyone who gives a f.....Peter Bond is on The Secret Millionaire tonight....don't expect an interview this is a TV show.....
 
For anyone who gives a f.....Peter Bond is on The Secret Millionaire tonight....don't expect an interview this is a TV show.....

I saw some adds last night before going to bed. Was that the guy who looked like a Billie Connolley wannabe or a cashed up neo hippie. I think they call him a coal mining millionaire or something similar.
 
Just noted that LINC has appointed a new Chief Financial Officer. Previous incumbent started in May 2009 and has not lasted beyond the probationary period.

Any knowledge or thoughts on the rapid turnover of such top executives? :confused:
 
Not complaining, because i hold, but does anyone know why this stock has gone up so much today?

nearly 8% at time of writing, i can't find any news
 
Not complaining, because i hold, but does anyone know why this stock has gone up so much today?

nearly 8% at time of writing, i can't find any news

Maybe good news about coal asset news will be released. According to interview of PB 5 weeks ago ,deadline of this news has been passed.
 
S/P closed up 14.5c to $1.76 today.

There is an announcement but it is only the notice of AGM with
the various agenda items and explanations.

Nothing that is market sensitive.


Waiting... waiting...
 
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