Oil pioneer Algy Cluff has won three further licences to exploit “clean coal” under the south North Sea and the north-west of England.
His firm, Cluff Natural Resources (CNR), said it is now moving ahead with plans for the UK’s first “underground coal gasification” (UCG) project in the UK, which is estimated to cost £115million.
Cluff, who was involved in the discovery of the Buchan field nearly 40 years ago, now has licences for nearly 237 square miles of offshore and near-shore coalfields in the UK.
The process of exploiting the estimated billions of tonnes of untapped coal reserves involves using oxygen and water through a borehole to turn the coal into a gas. The system produces syngas (synthetic gas) which can be processed into hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
The Coal Board, part of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc), awarded CNR three conditional UGC licences, two off the coast of Durham and one off Maryport in Cumbria.
Last year the company won UGC licences in the Loughor estuary, the Dee estuary, North Cumbria, Kincardine and Largo Bay.
The Coal Authority says reserves of coal offshore “have the potential to provide security of future energy supplies long after oil and natural gas are exhausted”.
The company is now evaluating where is the most suitable site for its first UCG demonstrator project.
“It is well known that coal seams extend into the offshore waters around the UK and the technology now exists to develop the UK’s most abundant indigenous energy source,” Cluff said.
“To this end we are in the process of commissioning the engineering and environmental studies required to support planning applications for our first demonstrator projects in the UK.
“Recent world events have further highlighted the major crisis our country faces in terms of future energy security and supply. I firmly believe a A well-regulated UCG industry in the UK will further diversify our primary energy supply, thereby reducing our reliance on foreign imports and exposure to fluctuations in global energy prices.”
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