Gas to Liquid
Commencement of Operations Started 28/12/2006
The strategy of GTL Resources plc is to produce liquids such as methanol and ethanol from stranded gas, corn and other feedstocks with quality counterparties. GTL manages all aspects of a project: finance, feedstock supply, production and marketing.

In line with its strategy of seeking to develop and exploit markets for alternative fuels, GTL has, since the beginning of 2001, concentrated primarily upon developing methanol projects, principally in Australia, and, more recently, ethanol project work. The Board has recognised the strategic benefits of acquiring a cash generative asset on a shorter time scale than the typical methanol construction time of three years. In furtherance of this strategy, on 6 September 2005 GTL Resources acquired a controlling interest in Illinois River Energy (IRE) to build an ethanol plant at Rochelle, Illinois, through its wholly owned subsidiary, GTL USA, which has been established for the purpose of investing in ethanol projects in the USA. GTL USA has invested in IRE by way of a subscription for units of IRE pursuant to the Unit Purchase Agreement.

This project has the advantage that the Plant is expected to produce revenues on a shorter time scale and at a significantly lower capital cost than the methanol plant in Australia.

The Company intends to further expand within the ethanol industry in the United States or other suitable markets by selective acquisition of low cost production facilities. The Company sees itself as a potential consolidator of ethanol plants in a particularly fragmented market.

FT Tip
GTL Resources, an Aim-listed company. It raised money to build an ethanol plant in the US. Raw materials costs have risen but the price of ethanol has gone through the roof. The earnings potential should be spectacular.

New Plant

Construction started at Rochelle, Illinois site in September and production from the 50 million gallon per annum ethanol plant is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2006. Following unusually mild weather in Illinois the project has progressed well and is on schedule and on budget. Whilst the Companys main efforts centre on the successful delivery of the US ethanol project at Rochelle, the potential expansion of that site to 100 million gallons is being investigated. In addition and consistent
with GTLs stated strategy for the expansion of its interests in the ethanol industry, other ethanol opportunities have also been identified and will be analysed. Pictures Of The Site Under Construction March 27, 2006 http://www.illinoisriverenergy.com/html/construction.html


Arden
http://gtlresources.com/documents/ArdenAnalystResearchNote.pdf
http://www.gtlresources.com/documents/ArdenAnalystResearchNote.pdf
BBC News Item On Ethanol
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4940000/newsid_4948400/bb_wm_4948456.stm

Ethanol Priceshttp://ethanolmarket.aghost.net/
Ethanol as a Transportation Fuel
http://energy.ca.gov/afvs/vehicle_fact_sheets/ethanol.html

Annual report for 2006
http://www.gtlresources.com/documents/GTLAnnualReport2006_001.pdf
Pics from Ethanol Producer Magazine of GTL's plant.
http://ethanolproducer.com/plant-images.jsp?plant_id=302&image_id=59
Commencement of Operations Started 28/12/2006
http://www.gtlresources.com/
Economics of Ethanol
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/ID/ID-339.pdf
2 July 2007 GTL Resources FY pretax loss narrows, plans 13 mln stg placing to fund expansion
http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200707020705014067Z.html
GTL Web Site
http://www.gtlresources.com/

I think it might take a bit of a hammering today judging by the large sells filtering through!!

jt
I cannot see any evidence of large selling 250k was the largest buyers still out way the sellers, its a good buying opportunity on any dip.

Apologies Driver I was looking at the wrong share! D'oh

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2769-2157686,00.html

JT
Cheers, Ethanol is definitely a future fuel to be reckoned with.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2769-2157686,00.html

Renova Energy sales volumes are up they said today (ethanol produces) a rise of 13 pct to 6.11 mln gallons, driven by buoyant US demand, Renova Energy M/Cap is 65.5M against a M/Cap of 80m for GTL who are proposing to double their output to 100m when they get going. Looking at that it makes GTL M/Cap and sp look very cheap IMO.

Large buys today 2, 3, and 5m shares some one is accumulating.

Thats what I call a big buy 12m at the end.

Does anyone know the yield of gallons per acre when corn is used to produce ethanol.
thanks.
Giggin

giggin
I don't know but I found this.

The agricultural residues that could be harvested sustainably in the United States today, for example, could yield 14.5 billion gallons of ethanol-four times the current output - with no additional land demands.

giggin
From another board, also try link.

There are two key indicators in evaluating crops for biofuel production: the fuel yield per acre and the net energy yield of the biofuels, after
subtracting the energy used in both production and refining. For ethanol, the top yields per acre are 714 gallons from sugar beets in France and 662 gallons per acre for sugarcane in Brazil. U.S. corn comes in at 354 gallons per acre, or roughly half the beet and cane yie

or 2.5 gallons per bushel us corn. They are trying to increase this to 2.8 gallons

www.ethanol.org

Driver
Many thanks for the info, do you know the price of ethanol per gallon at present.
Giggin

giggin
Got this from google

How much does a gallon of ethanol cost the public? A: On April 25, 2006, about $3.31

Driver.
Thanks for the info.
By my reckoning they are going to need 150,000 acres to produce 50m gallons of ethanol using corn, equivelent to 230 sq miles, a sizeable chunk of land in the U.K.
but a mere speck in the U.S.
Do you know how ethanol is taxed in the U.S. and are there any ethanol producers in the U.K
Regards,
Giggin.

Giggin - the more interesting plays in UK are BFC and DOO ..... I am fortuante to be holding both already, but they have a very favourable mention in Shares Mag

giggin

Im not sure on the tax they may even get a subsidy but heres an interesting article on imported ethanol tax dated Friday, May 5, 2006.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155AP_Ethanol_Imports.html

giggin

This looks like it. Published: Monday, May 01, 2006
Bills moving through the Legislature would lower the state tax on each gallon of ethanol-blended fuel to 12 cents, down from the 19 cents figured into a gallon of regular gas.

http://www.miningjournal.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=3230

Driver
Thanks, interesting links.
Giggin

Big 3 big on ethanol expansion
The Big Three automakers on Thursday pressed Congress to help make ethanol fuels more widely available.

http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&hl=en&client=google&ncl=http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20060519/AUTO01/605190327/1148

I like this company a lot too ..... The news on the legislation isn't particularly new (note date) and there is also the problem that ethanol from maize is still very expensive to produce as currently it only uses the kernels .... However, I believe they are working on technology to make the whole plant convertible.

I also have DOO and BFC is my portfolio of fossil-fuel alternatives ..... All get there through different applications.