A Legislative Committee had lots of questions during its meeting this week for Linc Energy. That company has plans for an underground coal gasification test project near the town of Wright. If it moves forward, it would be the first such project in the United States in decades.
Many of the legislators’ questions echoed those that have been raised before, from the impacts of the process on water quality to the possibility of sinkholes.
Others want to know whether the project would even be profitable at current fuel prices. Underground coal gasification produces syngas, which can be converted to products like diesel and fertilizer. Brian Deurloo Linc’s Wyoming project manager, said he couldn’t give any specifics on profitability.
“That is proprietary, but I will say that very low natural gas prices and oil prices plummeting don’t do us any favors at this point.”
Linc has an operating UCG plant in Uzbekistan and had a test project in Australia. Its test project in Wyoming needs an air quality permit before it can proceed.
