Sasol eyeing Montana for location of coal-to-liquids plant

Washington (Platts)--16Sep2005

Officials with Sasol, a South African energy company, will fly over Montana
coal mines and reserves this weekend as they consider US sites for a $5-bil
coal-to-liquids plant, a spokesman for US Rep. Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont., told
Platts Coal Trader Thursday. 

Rehberg has been courting the Sasol executives for some time, Rehberg
spokesman Brad Keena said. Wyoming and Illinois also are possible sites for
the plant and recently passed national energy legislation could help fund such
a project, he said. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed by President Bush in
August, spells out tax incentives and loan guarantees for projects like coal
gasification and coal liquefaction.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer will take the Sasol executives on an aerial tour
of the Decker and Colstrip mines and of Montana coal reserves, including the
state-owned Otter Creek tracts, Keena said.

Rehberg "has been working closely [with Sasol officials] over the past couple
of weeks and also is setting up meetings with other House leaders, perhaps the
Speaker of the House [Dennis Hastert]," Keena said. "They're coming with the
ability to [liquefy coal] and that translates into a couple of thousand jobs"
in Montana.

Sasol's synthetic fuels manager, John Sichinga, and Max Sisulu, Sasol group
general manager, will arrive in Helena today and will meet with Schweitzer for
a Saturday tour of the mines and reserve tracts. The executives will arrive in
Washington with Rehberg on Sep 28, Keena said, to meet with congressmen,
including House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio. In
the near future, Rehberg will tour the Wilsonville coal-gasification facility
in Alabama being jointly developed by Southern Company, the Dept. of Energy
and others.

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