Wonderful news that Engro found 2 BN tons of coal in their sector even though the initial estimate put the reserve at 1.6BN tons. And also that the quality turned out to be much better than originally estimated.
Thrilled to hear that the Geological Survey of China is involved in the project as well, and has confirmed the absence of free running water in the coal.
Engro First Phase 1200MW ($4BN investment), fully functional in 2016. Engro's block is good for 5GWs for 10 years. And that's just 1% of the reserve!
Dr. sahib's experimental Underground Gasification project first phase 100MW, starts producing in June, ramps up all the way in 2013. UCG based experiment. If it works, then this will be scaled.
Australian block - already allocated: 1GW project being run by Cougar Energy
UAE block - already allocated: 1GW project
UK block - already allocated: 1GW project
Turkish and Saudi companies have shown interest, but no blocks have been allocated. Engro and GoP will also be taking Thar related projects to China later in 2011 and will solicit further investment and interest from Chinese mining and energy companies.
In my view, all the naysayers thus far have been thoroughly refuted, not just by Dr. Mubarakmand, but by commercial companies like Engro, who have an excellent reputation. The two big claims were 1) that the coal can't produce the amount of electricity being projected and 2) the coal is not leveregable because it is either going to be too unclean or too low quality. I think we've gone beyond these two issues, now the question is whether UCG or open pit is the best technique, but that's secondary in my mind as both projects are proceeding in parallel on different blocks.