June 28, 2007 - BP and Ergo Exergy sign Technical Alliance agreement on Underground Coal Gasification (press release)

BP International and Ergo Exergy Technologies, Inc. today announced that they have signed a technical alliance agreement to work cooperatively on underground coal gasification (UCG) technology – the in-situ conversion of coal deposits into fuels and other products.

UCG offers the potential to produce fuels and hydrocarbon feedstock from coal deposits which may otherwise be unrecoverable. By introducing a carefully controlled supply of air or oxygen through wells into a coal seam, the coal can be reacted in situ to produce mixtures of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and other gases. These can be recovered to the surface through wells and used as fuel for power generation or as feedstock for the production of chemicals and other hydrocarbon products.

Ergo Exergy have world-leading experience in the development of UCG technology and are active in licensing their εUCG™ technology to commercial UCG projects. Founded over 15 years ago, their expertise and technology has been used in the two most successful UCG projects in recent years: the latest, in South Africa.

BP has long experience and extensive activities managing and producing coal bed methane and other gas resources, using world-leading technologies and expertise in seismic interpretation, directional drilling and fracturing techniques. In addition to the company’s global reach, BP has extensive major project management experience.

June 22, 2007 - Second International Underground Coal Gasification Workshop  held in Houston, TX, USA.

The second Workshop on  the global commercial applications of UCG  hosted by Zeus Development Corporation of Texas, USA  brought together participants from 12 countries representing 42 companies including the largest international corporations from oil and gas, coal, chemical and power industries as well as environmental, government, financial, academic and research organizations.

There were  reports with updates on the commercial projects based on the εUCG™ technology - from Canada, US, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand, presented by Laurus Energy (Canada), GasTech (USA), Eskom (South Africa), Cougar Energy (Australia), and AE Coal Technologies (India) and Ergo Exergy.  Two papers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA) reported on the document "The best practices of Underground Coal Gasification" prepared for the US Department of Energy, discussed the LLNL program of research in UCG and focused on the issues of CO₂ capture and sequestration in UCG operations. Papers from UCG group in University of Queensland (Australia) concerned UCG research conducted in the university targeting modeling of UCG unit operations and experimental studies of coal properties that are relevant to UCG.

A technical panel discussions of various technical and environmental aspects of UCG gave the audience an opportunity to get answers to their specific UCG questions and concerns. The Workshop was concluded by an inaugurational meeting of the International UCG Association.

Following the Workshop, the licensees and clients of Ergo Exergy held the meeting of "The εUCG™ technology Users' Group". The Users' Group assists its members in sharing  experiences and practices of implementing the εUCG™ technology in various geological and market situations around the globe.

June 19, 2007 - Majuba UCG Project is moving towards developing a pioneering 2,100 MW IGCC plant

The Majuba UCG Project reaches 4000 hours of continuous gas production. The project is based on  εUCG™ technology and is developed by Eskom Holdings Limited and Ergo Exergy in South Africa. Developed in challenging geological conditions, the project is expanding to reach an unprecedented scale.  Eskom Holdings announces today that the project is planned to develop into a 2,100 MW IGCC power plant based on expansion of the existing UCG plant currently operating at Majuba, in the South African province of Mpumalanga.

January 20, 2007 - First Underground Coal Gasification Plant in Africa - in Operation!

Mpumalanga, South Africa, 10:50 p.m. (GMT 20:50), Saturday, January 20, 2007: The first Underground Coal Gasification plant in the African continent successfully starts operations. The Majuba UCG Project, located in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is producing high quality syngas to be used for power generation in the existing 4.2 GW power plant. The project, based on Ergo Exergy's proprietary εUCG™ technology , is developed by Eskom Holdings Ltd. The Majuba UCG Project is unprecedented in its scale, geological complexity, and pioneering nature.  We are proud to know that the only two Underground Coal Gasification operations developed in the world in the last 18 years have been based on Ergo Exergy's technology and hard work.