Client News-CLEAN COAL LTD SECURES LICENCES TO INVESTIGATE UNDERGROUND COAL GASIFICATION AT FIVE UK SITES

For information/interview, please contact Clean Coal Ltd’s Chairman: Rohan Courtney on +44 (0)7879 498544 or rohan.courtney@cleancoalucg.com

PRESS RELEASE, 9^th December 2009

CLEAN COAL LTD SECURES LICENCES TO INVESTIGATE UNDERGROUND COAL GASIFICATION AT FIVE UK SITES

The UK Coal Authority has awarded Clean Coal Ltd licences to investigate the potential for underground coal gasification at 5 sites in the UK. If the investigations over the next 12-18 months prove to be successful, commercial operations could start by 2014/15 and could lead to underground coal gasification producing 3-5% of the UK’s total energy requirement by that date. This would be the first time that gasification of underground coal has featured in the UK energy market.

Clean Coal Ltd is a British/US company that specialises in underground coal gasification. As well as the UK, it is seeking to develop projects in other parts of Europe, Asia and North America.

In the UK, the UK Coal Authority has awarded the company licences to investigate five underground sites offshore from:

o Canonbie, Dumfrieshire

o Cromer, Norfolk

o Humberside

o Sunderland

o Swansea Bay

The investigations will include seismic and borehole surveys and the investigation areas range from 40 to 100 square kilometres and the depths of the coal range from 500 to 1200 metres below ground. The combined coal reserves for the five sites are estimated at around 1 billion tonnes.

Rohan Courtney, Chairman of Clean Coal Ltd said: “Recent developments in directional drilling technology and the growing need for new, secure and environmentally benign sources of energy means that underground coal gasification now merits serious investigation. This is an exciting and commercially viable development which can bring significant benefit to the UK economy.”

Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a method of converting deep seam coals into a combustible, high-quality and affordable gas than can be used for power generation, industrial heating, or the manufacture of hydrogen, syngas or diesel fuel. The gasification of coal in-situ is achieved by drilling boreholes into the coal and injecting water/air or water/oxygen mixtures. It is both an extraction process (like coal mining) and a conversion process (gasification) in one step (NB. see attached briefing note for more information).

Clean Coal Ltd expect to commence the site surveys in the first half of next year, and will host public exhibitions in each area to give local people the chance to know more about the work that will be undertaken.

For further information:

Clean Coal Ltd (www.cleancoalucg.com)

Rohan Courtney OBE, Chairman

Tel: 01483 832227 / 07879 498544

Email: rohan.courtney@cleancoalucg.com

Or

Catherine Bond, Chief Executive

Tel: 07788 872770

Email: cbond@cleancoalucg.com

Notes to Editors

1. The Clean Coal team has extensive experience in energy activities, underground coal gasification, coal mining and production. Its skill base extends through production development, project management, geology, chemical and industrial engineering, hydrogeology, seismology, modelling tools and directional drilling. Clean Coal has formed a grouping of the world’s most experienced UCG specialists. The team that developed and operated the only EU backed trial to be undertaken in Europe is strongly represented together with specialists with significant UCG knowledge.

2. Interest in UCG as a secure and economic source of energy has increased over the past five years. Most coal producing countries now have a comprehensive UCG programme comprising of feasibility studies, planning demonstrations and commercial scale projects. In-seam and Directional Drilling technology, formulated for the oil and gas industry, has transformed the UCG process, making it easier, more successful and more commercially viable.

3. Commercial scale projects have started in Australia, China, South Africa and India. Large-scale operations (>1GW) were developed by the Soviets in the 1970s and at least one plant in Uzbekistan still operates today. Low natural gas prices in the 1990s eliminated much of the ongoing development in US, although in Europe, a substantial programme of development in deeper seams was maintained until the present day. Extensive trials in Europe, the US, Russia, Australia, have proven the technology on many occasions.

4. In an article published in the August 2009 edition of Modern Power Systems, Kenneth Fergusson, Senior Independent Advisor to the UCG Partnership and former head of the UK Coal Authority said: “in contrast to the limited reserves of mineable coal in Britain, reported by the Coal Authority as less than 200 million tons, and being extracted at a rate of about 20 Mt per year, a study by DTI in 2004 predicted that there was about 17 billion tons of potentially gasifiable coal onshore in Britain; a parallel estimate produced a figure at least double that offshore, a total of over 50 billion tons. Expressed as life of the resource, this is centuries of our total national energy consumption and at least a millennium of CCGT output at projected rates. Even with uncertainties about the recoverability of the coal in place, the size of the resource for UCG is not likely to be a constraint for a very, very long time”.

Industry News-E.ON postpone Kingsnorth

German utility company, E.ON, have announced plans to shelve the controversial Kingsnorth coal powered station today.

This comes after many months of campaigning by green pressure groups, with Greenpeace having staged several protests, claiming a victory today.

The delay will put pressure on the Government to ensure power supplies in the coming decade, with many closures planned for 2015, and ensures that a seamless handover of generation at Kingsnorth is no longer possible.

The decision also raises questions regarding the governments CCS completion, with E.ON being one of the favourites to win the £1bn pound funding.

It also comes a day after the Conservatives have pledged new clean coal powered stations.

The company insist that they still have plans for clean coal generation in the UK, but economic conditions have pushed back the need for a new plant in the UK.

Industry news-Conservative Policy Proposals

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference yesterday, Greg Clark (Shadow DECC Secretary) signaled his intentions to give the green light on 5GW of new ‘Clean’ Coal powered stations under a Conservative government, as well as begin preparations for a new generation of nuclear stations for 2017.

The Conservatives have also committed to smart metering, as well as a upgrading of the national grid and an extension of the infrastructure to expand to offshore power generation to connect wind-farms and marine energy.

Other policies to emerge include giving local communities the business rates generated from onshore wind farms for six years, a pledge for electric car owners to be guaranteed an overnight charging point and the building of ‘Marine Parks’ to stage development for the UK’s world leading marine energy sector.

Industry News-Not under our backyard, say Germans, in blow to CO2 plans

German carbon capture plan appears to be a victim of 'numbyism' - not under my backyard

It was meant to be the world's first demonstration of a technology that could help save the planet from global warming – a project intended to capture emissions from a coal-fired power station and bury them safely underground.

But the German carbon capture plan has ended with CO2 being pumped directly into the atmosphere, following local opposition at it being stored underground.The scheme appears a victim of "numbyism" – not under my backyard.

Opposition to the carbon capture plan has contributed to a growing public backlash against renewable energy projects, raising fears that Europe will struggle to meet its low-carbon commitments. Last week, the Danish firm Vestas blamed British "nimbies" opposing wind farms for its decision to close its turbine factory on the Isle of Wight.

Many countries continue to use coal for generating power as it is the cheapest and most readily available fuel in the world. It will probably power the development of China and India. But coal is also seen as the dirtiest fuel. So, Vattenfall's Schwarze Pumpe project in Spremberg, northern Germany, launched in a blaze of publicity last September, was a beacon of hope, the first scheme to link the three key stages of trapping, transporting and burying the greenhouse gases.

The Swedish company, however, surprised a recent conference when it admitted that the €70m (£60.3m) project was venting the CO2 straight into the atmosphere. "It was supposed to begin injecting by March or April of this year but we don't have a permit. This is a result of the local public having questions about the safety of the project," said Staffan Gortz, head of carbon capture and storage communication at Vattenfall. He said he did not expect to get a permit before next spring: "People are very, very sceptical."

The spread of localised resistance is a force that some fear could sink Europe's attempts to build 10 to 12 demonstration projects for carbon capture and storage (CCS) by 2015. The plan had been to transport up to 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the power plant each year and inject it into depleted gas reservoirs at a giant gasfield near the Polish border.

Scientists maintain that public safety fears are groundless: the consequences of escaping CO2 would be to the climate, not to public health. Many big environmental groups support CCS, both off and onshore, as a necessary evil in the battle against climate change.

But Jim Footner, a Greenpeace climate campaigner, said the German protests were "a stark warning to those that think CCS is an easy solution to the huge climate problems of coal-fired power stations".

The first wake-up call came in March, when a Dutch council objected to Shell's plans to store CO2 in depleted gas fields under the town of Barendrecht, near Rotterdam.

This was despite a successful environmental impact assessment and the enthusiastic backing of the Dutch government, which, in September, must decide whether to give Shell the green light, despite the council's opposition.

Wim van de Wiel, a Shell spokesman, said: "For Shell the only suitable location for the tender was, and still is, Barendrecht, because of the safety and the depleted status of the [gas] field."

Jeff Chapman, chief executive of the the Carbon Capture & Storage Association, said Vattenfall should study the example of Total, which made great efforts to engage the local community when it launched its CCS pilot project in Lacq, southern France.

Stuart Haszeldine, a CCS expert at the University of Edinburgh, warned of the danger of opposition towards CCS snowballing into a "bandwagon of negativity" if too many early projects were rejected. "Once you've screwed up one or two of them, people are going to think 'if they rejected this in Barendrecht, there must be a reason'," he said.

In the UK, CCS is one of the four "pillars" of the government's decarbonisation strategy. A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "We plan to store the CO2 from CCS plants offshore, for example in depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea. We are one of the first countries to have legislation … to regulate environmental and safety risks."

Political News-The G8 countries pledges to temperature target, but receive criticism for UN Gen-Secretary

The G8, meeting in Italy this week, have agreed for the first time to recognise that the rise in average global temperature should be limited to 2°C. The G8 leaders subsequently pledged to support global targets to cut emissions by 50% by 2050, with an extended intention support an ambitious long-term target of 80% for more industrialised countries.

However, the plans have been criticised by some green groups, due to the base year for calculating emission reductions being left ambiguous. The declaration states that the reductions should be "compared to 1990 or more recent years". The wording could lead to wrangling between nations, especially between Western European countries and developing nations.

The conference has been quick to promote the fiscal stimulus packages that have focused resources towards energy efficiency measures and support for renewable energy technologies and clean coal.

However, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon criticised leaders of the G8 or failing to make deeper commitments to combat climate change. Ki-Moon, stated that the agreement by the G8 are insufficient to counter climate change.

“The climate problem brings along a responsibility, which is historical and mandatory for our planet’s future,
Ban Ki-Moon told the press at the end of the G8 Summit.