WINNIPEG, MB — On July 2, Donald Benson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd., announced that the Company, along with its joint venture partner, Western Warner Oils Ltd., are examining the possibility of using Underground Coal Gasification as a means to convert the coal into product gas at its recently acquired Drumheller, Alberta property. 



Nordic is currently making preparations to submit an application to the Province of Alberta for a UCG pilot project, only the second such project ever undertaken in Canada, and one of just a few in North America. The Company announced on June 1, 2009 that it had acquired 3,856 hectares (9,528 acres) of coal leases located at Drumheller, Alberta.

In March of this year, the Alberta government, through the Alberta Energy Research Institute, announced that it was providing $8.83 million for a $30-million deep coal gasification project being undertaken by a Calgary-based company. It is expected the project will demonstrate the ability to produce environmentally clean synthetic gas from Alberta’s vast, deep, coal resources, with the future potential of using the coal seams for carbon capture and storage.



"The basic UCG process involves drilling two wells into the coal — one for injection of the oxidants (water/air or water/oxygen mixtures), and another some distance away to bring the product gas to the surface," said Benson. "The technique offers an alternative to conventional coal mining methods."


Industry experts are predicting that there is going to be a resurgence and re-branding of coal-powered fuel in this country. Toward this end, new forms of extraction are being introduced and studied, including underground coal gasification, which boasts dramatic reductions in emissions, low energy costs and relatively minor surface footprints when compared to the surface and mining—based coal power plants commonly used throughout North America.

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