The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS -- Oil and gas company ConocoPhillips said Monday it is teaming up with coal provider Peabody Energy on plans to build a facility in the Midwest that converts coal to a substitute for natural gas.
A specific location hasn't been determined, but the plant, using Conoco Phillips' E-GAS technology, would be developed at the mouth of a mine at a site where St. Louis-based Peabody has access to large reserves and existing infrastructure.
The project's preliminary design and economic assessment are expected to be complete in early 2008. Construction would begin in 2009 at the earliest but the time frame would depend upon on a number of factors, including regulatory approval, said Bill Graham, a spokesman for Houston-based ConocoPhillips.
Graham did not offer a cost estimate, but said that if all the pieces come together it would be a multibillion-dollar project. The additional mining and the facility combined would employ about 400 workers, according to preliminary estimates, he said.
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When completed, the plant is expected to produce 50 billion to 70 billion cubic feet of synthetic natural gas from more than 3.5 million tons of coal.
ConocoPhillips said de-mand for natural gas and synthetic natural gas has grown rapidly in recent years. The company said its E-GAS technology converts coal or petroleum coke into a clean synthesis gas, a process that it said allows virtually all impurities to be removed.
The National Coal Council, in a 2006 study, called for using coal to provide at least 15 percent of U.S. natural gas consumption.
