That precipice again - by Richard... Tuesday, January 17, 2012

That precipice again - by Richard... Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Rescue work was briefly suspended on the Costa Concordia yesterday after the vessel slipped deeper into the water. Although this was less than four inches, it transpires that the wreck is perched on a rock ledge and, with just a small movement, could plunge to the depths in water over 300 ft deep.

And already, we could not resist the temptation of drawing the parallels, but the similarities are getting to be uncanny.

Even while this testament to "continuing harmony, unity, and peace between European nations" was shifting its ground, rating agency Standard & Poor's cut its credit rating of the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro zone's rescue fund, by one notch to AA+ on Monday, three days after it cut the ratings of France and Austria by the same margin.

In a statement, S&P said the decision was all but inevitable following the cuts to the creditworthiness of France and Austria, which were two of the EFSF's guarantors. "We consider that credit enhancements that would offset what we view as the now-reduced creditworthiness of the EFSF's guarantors and securities backing the EFSF's issues are currently not in place," the agency said.

So there we have it. The euro shifted again yesterday – only a little bit, but it transpires that this wreck of a currency is perched on a rock ledge and, with just a small movement, could tip it over the precipice and plunge it to the depths. One of those small movements just happened ... it is just a matter of time.

The answer lies in the soil - by Richard... Monday, January 16, 2012

It was sneaked in around December 2009 and now work has progressed to the state where Clean Coal Ltd wants to apply for planning permission for exploratory drilling in Swansea Bay. This is anUnderground Coal Gasification (UCG) project. With a billion tons of coal thought to be lying under Swansea Bay – just one of 14 sites licensed for exploration – the potential is huge, possibly bigger than shale gas in the UK.

The initial Swansea programme aims to identify an area with about 30 to 50 million tons or so of coal suitable for underground coal gasification, with seams down to about 1,500 ft underground - too deep to mine, but ideal for producing syngas - a combination of carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen.

So far, there are UCG plants producing gas in Australia and Central Asia but none in Europe as yet. Britain with massive coal reserves. With an estimated 85 percent of these reserves being considered unmineable, the UK is an ideal place to exploit this resource which, worldwide, could amount to five trillion tons of previously unreachable coal.

Once again, therefore, technology is coming to the rescue and confounding the naysayers. And nor can it come too soon as reports reach us that we could lose half our gas imports if the Iraniansblock the Strait of Hormuz.

Needless to say, the Greens are against it. Presumably, they would want to fill Swansea Bay full of windmills. But, as someone used to say, the answer lies in the soil.