Next Fuel Provides Updates on Indonesia, China Coal-to-Gas Operations

Next Fuel has provided an update on its coal-to-gas operations in Indonesia and China.

The company has said that its Indonesian licensee have completed the drilling and initial nutrient injections at their commercial site in Sumatra, where 13 of our 16 wells displayed detectible natural gas after only four weeks of injections.

In China it has completed drilling at the first gas generating units at a site in Inner Mongolia where nutrient injections are expected to begin shortly. In addition, Next Fuel's licensee has started drilling four units at a second site in Inner Mongolia. Furthermore, the licensee has identified an additional site in Southern China, where the company expects to begin drilling in the next four weeks.

Next Fuel's patent-pending coal-to-gas (CTG) technology converts low-grade coal (such as lignite) into clean-burning natural gas through the introduction of nutrients, via a low-pressure pumping system, to the wide range of microorganisms that naturally exist in coal deposits. The proprietary nutrients stimulate the microorganisms, which in turn consume certain carbon-containing compounds in the coal and exhale biogenic natural gas as a by-product.